Industrial heritage contemporary reappropriations: Aspects of the Tamanduateí River neighborhoods - São Paulo, Brazil
My Session Status
What:
Paper
When:
3:30 PM, Tuesday 30 Aug 2022
(20 minutes)
Where:
UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS)
- DS-R515
The neighborhoods of the Tamanduateí River, situated at the expanded center of the city of São Paulo capital, are empirical research objects chosen for the development of the PhD in Architecture and Urbanism entitled "Processes of productive displacement - urban restructuring and resignification of industry". The study with contemporary urban issues involved in this territory, which highlights the theme of industrial remains and how the industrial heritage field of study looks at this industrial landscape. For this work, the issues of reappropriation of the old industries is central, as an aspect that clearly exposes the current urban dynamics to which this territory is submitted.
The neighborhoods of Tamanduateí are located on Tamanduateí River’s margins, an important axis that cuts across São Paulo city center. At the end of the 19th Century, this territory would accomodate São Paulo Railway, used mainly for coffee production transit between São Paulo’s interior and Santos port. The occupation of this area would be consolidated only in the 20th century, with the later occupation of its floodplain. In the 1930's, it received part of São Paulo capital's manufacturing facility, an activity that went into decline as early as 1970. This process of productive emptying accelerated after the 1990's, and as a central region with large idle areas, it became the object of urban intervention plans and real estate speculation.
The 2015 urban intervention plan for the area provides an incentive for the installation of initiatives connected to the so called creative economy. The proposal is aligned with a broader and global trend of using former industrial areas by incubators and technology accelerators (ZUKIN, 2002). Although the urban intervention plan has been approved, its implementation has not been effective. The resulting economic crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated the closure and the productive emptying of the area.
The industrial heritage field provides a key to read and evaluate the testimonies of industrialization present in this area. In the last fifteen years, several buildings in this category have been protected and there has been a significant advance with the approval of new legislation, which allows for its interpretation as a landscape and an industrial ensemble (ZEPEC). However, legal protection has not reflected effectively in reuse. (MENEGUELO, 2001; RUFINONI, 2016).
During the 2000's, temporary artistic initiatives took place in these industrial areas, such as the Arte-Cidade project (BRISSAC, 2012). However, its temporary character did not bring significant changes in the process of resuming the old industrial structures. In spite of the relationships between contemporary art and remaining industrial buildings (FOSTER, 2017), this programmatic aspect is not explored in the study area.
On the other hand, real estate capital has been using the large areas of the available lots as a territory of investment, with has brought high density and verticalized buildings projects. This is a type of reappropriation that ignores any pre-existing memorial values.
In contrast, there are still interstitial lands, alleys and remaining areas illegally occupied today by low-income population. This kind of use evades the city's production control rules, but obeys the standards established by the urban fabric and the old industrial structures.
This multiplicity of potential reappropriations, whether permanent or temporary, marginal or official, in different scales, reinforces many contemporary debates that might be of relevance to the field of heritage.
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