I. Community articulations

Santa Cruz is very different (and very far) from the ‘beach-culture extravaganza’ Rio that we all know. Its almost complete lack of architectural and urban devices for community gathering and entertainment forced the neighborhood to tacitly establish very peculiar social dynamics. Social engagement is only able to take place when local communities gather around specific events that require collective participation, such as a football match. In Santa Cruz, football is not only about the game. It means much more than that. A football match is the collective tour-de-force that activates the whole community network. It’s the opportunity to chit-chat, to see old friends, to flirt, to celebrate something with a barbecue, and so on. And it is precisely the intensification of this local quality of football to be a catalyst of social empowerment that formed the primary concept of this project – an urban device to boost flow and permanence throughout the site.

II. Circulation & permanence

The existing urban context of the site reassured our intention to turn it into a local hinge for community articulations. Its position within the local fabric conveniently intermediates circulation through pivotal points of the neighborhood: local schools, hospitals, churches, commercial clusters, and other football fields. Through this existing potential, we were able to turn the site into an actual point of articulation, rendering it as both a place for circulation and permanence. This pairing of apparently opposing functions was used to conceive the project’s architectural and urban strategies. The existing diagonal circulation axis became a spinal boardwalk, which is transversally intersected by walks, plazas and architecture. The building of the Youth and Women’s Leadership Center (YWLC) was designed as a hybrid device. Its physical presence sets the regimes of circulation and uses of the site, playing the role of portal, shaded circulation and landmark. Symbolically, the point where the building intersects the diagonal will be the community’s exhibition area for football memorabilia and trophies. 

III. Environmental & Construction strategies

Santa Cruz has an extremely harsh climate: very hot and humid throughout the year (even in winter), but rewarded with almost constant breezes from the north and the north-east (data from INMET, the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology). Coincidentally, the site’s diagonal boardwalk is almost perfectly aligned in a north-south direction. This allowed for the correct positioning of the training and match fields of the YWLC parallel to it, as well as the design of the building. It was designed perpendicularly to the main axis, taking advantage of cross-ventilation possibilities and facilitated ways for excessive sunlight protection. The linear matrix of the interventions enabled the use of a modulated construction system based on the balanced use of locally sourced and industrialized materials. The material palette of the design was based on low-tech systems that could profit from community participation and local availability. Loam, gabion and pre-cast concrete elements were rationally combined to create a low-cost and flexible system, that enables the phased implementation of the YWLC.

IV. Site planning & phasing

All the landscape and architectural elements of the YWLC were designed to provide maximized, yet controlled, permeability of the site. Its circulation structure also functions a device to organize the different activities of the YWLC. Gabion bleachers, benches and rails clearly define and control outdoor uses. The distribution of the programme throughout the site and its architecture is done linearly, along covered paths. Outdoor activities are organized in relation to the proximity of uses in the architecture. In order to guarantee the implementation of the YWLC even with current limited funding for the construction, its elements were designed in modules that could be built according to the availability of resources. Thus, phasing strategies can be easily adapted to any circumstance. The first of the project will encompass the construction of the café/bar, dressing rooms and water tower modules (as well as the football field) to support the organization of the 2010 Homeless World Cup. These first modules are also the main visual landmarks of the project.

V. Passive cooling & natural lighting strategies

Taking advantage of the northeastern and northern breezes that pass through the site, an ‘air-cushion’ system was created in order to guarantee comfortable temperatures in the building. The roof and the interior spaces of the building are independent elements. The inclination of the roof creates differences in the air pressure above and beneath it. The airflow on the top sucks out the air in the air-cushion, cooling it. The openings in the compartments allow for the control of excessive breeze and also uses the difference in pressure zones to create constant cross-ventilation. The inclination of the roof allows for natural indirect lighting to enter from south, while the loam structure and light-shelfs control and smooth out the constant light and solar radiation from the north.

VI. Modular building technology

The materialization of the project is based on the balanced use of locally sourced and industrialized materials. This combined strategy was devised to allow the universal use of the construction approaches in the Santa Cruz project in different occasions, and places. All materials are easily available in Santa Cruz or within the city of Rio de Janeiro, reducing costs and the carbon footprint of material transportation. Material organization and use was divided into three categories: locally sourced; locally recycled; and industrialized elements. These categories allow for the adaptation of the construction methods to any circumstance using local technologies and materials. All building elements were designed in modules that can be organized linearly to allow extensions or reductions in the project without undermining its architectural qualities.

VII. List of potential materials

The materialization of the project is based on the balanced use of locally sourced and industrialized materials. This combined strategy was devised to allow the universal use of the construction approaches in the Santa Cruz project in different occasions, and places. All materials are easily available in Santa Cruz or within the city of Rio de Janeiro, reducing costs and the carbon footprint of material transportation.

Material organization and use was divided into three categories: locally sourced; locally recycled; and industrialized elements. These categories allow for the adaptation of the construction methods to any circumstance using local technologies and materials. All building elements were designed in modules that can be organized linearly to allow extensions or reductions in the project without undermining its architectural qualities.

VII.1. Locally Sourced This category uses predominantly rammed loam and other local soil stabilization techniques in order to build the primary structure of the building, which is also the main modulation of its compartments. The rammed loam acts as both load-bearing and architectural element. As it doesn’t require specialized workforce, it allows for the participation of the local population in the construction process.

main elements

rammed loam

stabilized / compact soil

mortar strips

VII.2. Locally Recycled

his category is used for landscape elements, such as benches, pavement, edges, foundations, etc. It uses gabion technology, which allows for the use of any available local rubble in combination with other mineral elements. The pilling and horizontal distribution of the gabions define circulation and permanence possibilities throughout the site.

main elements

construction rubble / stones

gabion nets

gabion stones

VII.3. Industrialized Elements – In order to facilitate maintenance and access to materials, all non-structural elements were chosen following industrial standards for regular retail building material. As this category relies on industrialized, small-scale elements, it allows cheap and easy replacement of any element of the building. The definition of the industrialized elements can de adapted to the local availability in other neighborhoods, or regions.  

main elements

pre-cast concrete elements

market standardized pre-fab aluminum

organic fiber roof

OSB panels (oriented strain board)

CAMPO aud

Team Members

Gabriel Duarte
architect / urban designer

Renata Bertol
architect / urban designer

Ricardo Kawamoto
architect / urban designer

Luciano Alvares
architect / urban designer

Márcio Costa
architect

Gwendal Hervé
architect

Monique Bastos
architect / urban designer

Henrique Sanson
intern

Pedro Varella
intern

Firm Profile

CAMPO is not merely a business-oriented partnership, but a confluence of young and motivated professionals, who seek - above all - to engage architecture, urban planning and landscape design though their complex and multi-disciplinary juxtapositions. The different backgrounds of each collaborator of CAMPO are not accidental. Our different, yet complementary, experiences in several design and planning fields facilitate an intensive exchange of ideas that enables us to approach our professional challenges comprehensively.

The working methods of CAMPO involve a distinct kind of critical pragmatism, one that synchronizes direct action with intensive conceptual research. The different scales – from architectural details to planning decisions – are dealt with constant flows of approximation and distancing. Thus, we are able to promote direct architectural responses from different stimuli from the urban and natural environments, and vice-versa.

Furthermore, the partners share common histories of successful past collaborations in different offices and in academia. If it was possible to map a genealogy of all CAMPO collaborator, a coherent branching of professional relationships would emerge to highlight important precedents of past collaborations. The office is particularly experienced in urban regeneration plans for low-income neighborhoods and in participatory planning and design methods.

CAMPO is currently working on both urban and architectural commissions in Brazil and Africa. In Brazil, CAMPO is developing the following projects: urban regeneration plans and new housing stock for the Juliano Moreira Community (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); low-income housing units (Joinville, Brasil); annex and restoration of the Antônio Parreiras Museum (Niterói, Brazil) and the renovation of the SESC Quitandinha cultural center (Petrópolis, Brazil). In Africa, CAMPO is working on several regeneration and housing plans in the Province of Cabinda, in Angola.

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