Urban Planning + Architecture (2012)

Ponte de Terra Housing Sector Masterplan

The territory in question was originally owned by Terracap and belonged to the political project responsible for urbanizing the region along with the ARINE Mansões Paraíso. The approximately 700 hectare borough consisted of both favela occupation and high-class housing complexes.

The polygonal is surrounded by three motorways and has two large regions of preserved water sources. These two regions are subject to occupation restrictions determined by the index of area permeability of each estate. For the sake of this preservation, the plan for occupation was divided into three types of occupation for housing:

Very low density - 19 inhabitants/hectare: 237 hectares divided into approximately 1100 estates for a maximum of 4500 inhabitants;

Low density - 32 inhabitants/hectare: 370 hectares divided into approximately 3000 estates for a maximum of 12000 inhabitants;

Medium density - 55 inhabitants/hectare: 180 hectares divided into approximately 2050 estates for a maximum of 10000 inhabitants.

It was determined that the constructions would be limited to 2 stories in order to maintain the density of this sensible location as low as possible. It was also decided that this new borough would require the urban equipment of a semi-independent city.

In addition, the development of particular patterns for the network system was also necessary, as this site had the same problem as the ARINE site with the width of the streets that were already established. In fact, critical street width can be found in many points of the polygonal, demanding a local road profile where automobiles and pedestrians have to share the space.