Redeveloping the Riachuelo Building in São Paulo’s Historic Downtown

Abstract

The Riachuelo building with its 17 floors was designed and built between 1942 and 1945 by the engineers Lindenberg & Assumpção. Its first owner was the São Paulo’s Association of Commerce Employees, which occupied only a few floors with social activities. The units in remaining floors were individually sold. The Association left the building in 1978, and the space it occupied was used by an accounting school. When the school left, the building gradually became empty until it was invaded by homeless people in 1994. The expulsion of the invaders by the police led to the deep depredation, including destruction of the property’s doors, windows, toilets, elevators and rainwater plumbing. During the administration of Mayor Marta Suplicy (2000/2004), the program Morar no Centro was created aiming to occupy São Paulo’s historic downtown, not only with municipal administration offices, but also with residents in a "social lease" system. In 2004, Paulo Bruna Arquitetos was hired by Cohab-SP to rehabilitate the building. The recovery sought to respect the original constructive logic in 5,554 square foot of land area and the 84,717 square foot total constructed area. The solid brick walls that separated the different offices were kept since they are part of the structure’s bracing, so basically every office was turned into an apartment, in a total of 120 units, ranging from 301 square foot to 516 square foot of floor space. Many of them include private balconies and balcony doors, and those were kept because the façade has been listed as historical heritage. The apartments were eventually sold and their residents value and maintain the building in an exemplary way.