the aim of the project ´minhocão´s metamorphosis´ is the transformation of minhocão´s infrastructure - an elevated highway - into a new social space in the inner city of são paulo. the adapted design will provide new mixed uses in combination with future mobility - designated mainly for the current inhabitants of the quarter. small living units and service areas like cafés, public swimmingpools, recharge stations for e-mobility etc. will be integrated into public spaces. the new proposal for minhocão patches the cut neighborhoods together and provides new innercity areas with an increased quality of moderate living and identity.

key questions are:

• what are the specific characteristics of mixed uses situated 

  on and under the existing concrete superstructure?

• how much space and light is needed for human life?

• what is the interface between public and privat?

• how can future mobility enforce and not destroy the new

  social spaces

background:
with about 12 million inhabitants, são paulo is the biggest and probably densest populated city in brazil. ´due to the rapid and strong growth of the city, the urban development has overwhelmed the city’s infrastructure and therefore affects the quality of life in a negative way. the insufficient supply in the structure of public transport and the exaggerated private transport leads to miles of daily traffic congestion; immense air and water pollution, extensive poverty and high crime rates pose challenges that are reflected in a very unequal, segregated - in social and spatial terms - town.´ 
são paulo I urban observatory & pocket interventions I abstract I diploma thesis I patricia wess + thomas kalcher

the limited quality of downtown living caused by inefficient traffic plannig needs sensible and innovative consideration:

what interventions are necessary to resocialize broken neighbourhoods? how can these ´lost urban spaces´ be returned to the local people? the cutting traffic corridors are a burden - but can metamorphose into new social spaces!

minhocão:

the ´minhocão´ (earthworm) is an elevated highway in the inner city of são paulo. the huge concret infrastructure was built from 1969-1970 to move traffic from east to west through the city center. officially called ´via elevada presidente costa e silva´, minhocão is 3.4 km long and divides the 4 quarters of consolação, república, santa cecília and barra funda.

the original idea of lifting the problem of transit off the ground caused immediately physical and social problems on the central neigborhoods with more than 80.000 cars a day. the first reaction was the closure of the highway during nighttime in 1976 which was extended to be everyday between 9:30 pm and 6:30 am in 1989. today, the minhocão is also closed on sundays.

today the city’s master plan calls for the total deactivation of the highway in the next 15 years, though it doesn’t specify whether the road would be demolished or turned into a park with mixed use - a social space, accessible, free of charge and open to all.