Guidelines of green infrastructure for urban design: An exercise of landscape planning at Luz district, São Paulo

Abstract

This research presents projective guidelines for the planning and design of new public and semi-public green areas, which functions and distribution were defined based on the concepts of green infrastructure and applied at the area of Luz District, in São Paulo. This research is part of a multidisciplinary project developed by Laboratory of Environmental Comfort and Energy Efficiency (LABAUT), of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, and propose an intervention in the built environment aiming the population and constructive densification under the perspective of environmental performance. The working method consisted primarily in the characterization of the following issues: existing green areas within the analyzed area and surroundings; flow of pedestrians; and, cyclists and insolation dynamic of that area. The intersection of results allowed conducting the vocation of green areas and setting targets, guidelines and strategies. The four main objectives were defined to increase the offer of open spaces, provide an environmental quality for pedestrians, improve drainage and increase local biodiversity. As a result there was an increase of 1,200% in the amount of green open spaces in the focused area, rising from 5.033sqm to 60.450sqm. The research includes concepts still little used in common practice of landscape projects in urban scale at Brazilian cities, starting from the premise that the green areas take part of a infrastructural system that perform various functions in the city.