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Architects: MMBB Arquitetos, Paulo Mendes da Rocha
- Area: 27865 m²
- Year: 2017
Text description provided by the architects. We believe that the process of transformation and development of cities like São Paulo is slowly adapting to the changes in the customs and way of life of the societies that build them. The new unit of SESC - a complex set of recreational facilities and services - that will occupy the headquarters building of the old Mesbla, found on the corner of 24 de Maio Street and Dom José de Barros Street, downtown São Paulo, is an exemplary problem of transformation in the built urban heritage.
With these premises, the proposed project intends, besides the simple use and adaptation of facilities that originally served the uses of nature so diverse to those that are being proposed, to contribute effectively to the desired recovery of such a remarkable area of the city through the following order of basic ideas:
- Housing, with a square under the existing building, the idea of transforming the place. The "Square of SESC", with a gallery character of free passage, linked to the animation of the neighborhood;
- Transforming the former underground garage into Café and Theater frankly linked to the 24 de Maio Street;
- To create a new vertical circulation system that, in addition to meeting the safety requirements of the Works Code, is a clear and continuous circuit through the proposed ramp set, capable of transforming, in an architectural way, the wide public space of the city's enclosure in the various places of activities specific to the programs of the SESC in an unchained and playful way, a walk;
- Distinguish the premises Restaurant, of free public use, at once above the Square and Administration of SESC;
- Arrange some spaces in strategic levels with the sense of covered squares, without fence in the facades, suspended gardens - Coexistence square, Garden of the Pool;
- Adopt two-level associations, with a large parquet flooring, with a double ceiling height, and upper and lower galleries for some of the program's items, to enhance spaces and avoid the monotony of simple overlapping type floors;
- Building a "Square of the Sun" on the roof, with pool;
- To make visible in the façades a character resulting from the new arrangement for the mass of the building, where one sees this unexpected succession of overlapping activities, a new and peculiar building in the city with its own character;
- Concentrate and isolate the technical and mechanical facilities to support the various activities suggested in the program of the entity, thereby annexing the contiguous property in Dom José de Barros Street - abandoned a few years ago - for the construction of an auxiliary complex of services and machinery, Service Tower;
In order to realize these transformations that, in fact, characterize the proposed project and inaugurate a new spatiality, from the point of view of the constructive techniques and prediction of facilities, the following measures were adopted:
- The prompt demolition of parts of the existing set, which does not offend the original basic structure, including the covered hall of the old Mesbla to create a void inside the existing building;
- The construction of a new independent structure, supported by four main pillars that cross the central void, which supports the large interspersed halls and the volume of the solarium with pool on the roof;
- The downgrade of the area of the current garage underground to complete the volume of the Theater and its annexes, carefully respecting the limits of proximity and area of influence of existing foundations and neighboring constructions;
- The feasibility of double floors and open circulation with the prediction of an elaborate smoke control mechanical system covering all levels of the building which, as needed by the Fire Department, complements the usual safety devices for a building intended for the proposed uses.
Demonstrating the virtues of the future life of the city, while claiming the privilege of occupying such a noble place of São Paulo - Viaduto do Chá, Municipal Theater, Barão de Itapetininga, São João Avenue, Praça da República - is the main aim of this project.
