PLACE

São Paulo

PROJECT YEAR

2013 | 2016

GARDEN PROJECTED AREA

19.200 m²

BUILDING AREA

1.500 m²

PARK AREA

13.540 m²

Senac Águas de São Pedro maintains a school hotel in São Paulo countryside, a hydro-mineral resort. Reorganizing their leisure areas is an attempt to attract a younger audience. Assuming that challenge, the office designed a ground floor building inside the hotel’s woods, which, with its staircases and ramps, connects new areas to the old ones.

The integration of spaces is made by wooden decks, which also serve for entertaining and interactive activities with guests. Thinking about the purpose of this building, the environments were designed to be modular and flexible according to activity type and age group, which can be reduced, expanded, or even integrated into the external area with the use of glass partitions.

The idea of a water park arose from the design, as a way to enhance and rescue the water element, so important for the history of the hotel and the city. With aquatic and recreational equipment divided by age group and rubberized sand-colored floor, the environment was inspired by a small beach.

Thus, at the same time that it proposes contemporary solutions, the building adapts to the environment where it is inserted and to the established constructions. This valued its surroundings and respected the important tradition of the city, developed around the hotel, and the discovery of the thermal waters.

In addition to the Water Park, the office designed a zen garden around the hotel, taking advantage of a golf course of more than 19 thousand square meters that has no use now. The environment offers guests areas to stay, stroll and rest, with great vegetation, two ornamental lakes, lawns, wooden decks, and stone paths.

Photos: Ana Mello (Park and Recreation and Leisure Center) and Archive (Zen Garden)

PLACE

São Paulo

PROJECT YEAR

2015 | 2016

LAND AREA

50.000 m²

BUILDING AREA

6.180 m²

The educational process is not restricted to classrooms only, it takes place in all spaces of an educational institution. A new educational practice requires the redefinition of the use of spaces, in order to promote environments that meet and contribute to the formulation of new models.

The new pedagogical models of Colégio Santa Cruz brought to light the need to rethink environments, among them, the sports gymnasium and outdoor areas. In this sense, Levisky Arquitetos proposed a reform project including some interventions, aiming at creating spaces that stimulate and provide new, dynamic, playful experiences and that expand the limits of the classrooms.

The Multisport Gymnasium project, in line with the institution’s new pedagogical, cultural and technological perspectives, considered the demolition of the existing building, maintaining only the operational support space, and the construction of a new building to house new sports, competitions and school parties, among other functions. It also includes additional rooms for new sports and activities organized by age group, as well as changing rooms and other institutional support. As the works were carried out during the school year, requiring the use of the gymnasium, the office sought solutions for a fast, dry and phased construction.

Studying the potential of the campus, an extensive and green area in the west side of São Paulo, the office proposed an underground garage, to avoid circulation and parking of vehicles in the internal streets and transforming these spaces into walkable promenades with coloured interlocking floor, which connects all the blocks, expanding the possibilities of socializing and developing outdoor educational activities.

Photos: Archive

PLACE

São Paulo

PROJECT YEAR

2006 | 2007

COMPLETION

2008

LAND AREA

13.648 m²

BUILDING AREA

2.650 m²

To rehabilitate an abandoned and contaminated area next to its building, Abril Publishing house sought the office to be the mediator with the city of São Paulo, owner of the land, and to propose an opening project to the public. The Publisher house wanted to create an environment to offer graphic arts courses, in connection with its industry.

Based on this proposal, Levisky Arquitetos used its expertise and designed a public-private partnership model, generating a cooperation term for the rehabilitation of that area, in which the city government would give up the use of space and the company would take care of the execution of the project and the maintenance of activities in the square.

Given the high impact of soil decontamination, the office designed a large suspended wooden deck, with spaces for walking and permanence for visitors to circulate and engage in activities. The concept of Sustainability Open Museum was created to explain the solutions given to the problems in the area, and a permanent exhibition inside the building of an old incinerator, to teach how space was renewed.

The architectural language adopted in the renovation of the building opted for the aesthetics of brutality so that the place is part now of the recovery history. Hanging Gardens were also installed, with rainwater collection and gardening systems, in addition to landscaping with phytotherapeutic plants and biofuels.

In a context in which sustainability discussion was new, the work did not only enabled a bridge between public and private authorities in this direction, but also brought practical responses to a degraded urban environment. These solutions, in turn, brought permanent didactic and cultural gains for the population of the city as a whole.

 Co-authorship Anna Julia Martins Dietzsch

Photos: Nelson Kon, Nathalie Artaxo and Pedro Mascaro