Parque Sao Domingos

Parque Sao Domingos is essentially an island favela surrounded by middle-class housing.  There are 669 inhabitants living in a fairly small plot of land.  The site has a unique condition of having a large soccer field as well as a sports court that have been religiously not invaded.  The two main issues of the site are: a) all the houses bordering the street to the southeast have been built over a stormwater canal and are in danger of collapsing and b) the site is very dense and unhealthy in areas.  The proposal currently is to do an “acupuncture removal” to de-densify and allow room to go down and repair the water canal.  These open spacescan have leisure activities inside the favela, or the spaces on the edges can become programmed areas that are currently lacking in the site.  A community center and new housing can be built over the existing sports court and the soccer field can be re-dimensioned and rearranged to allow for more program around or even underneath.