In the shadow of skyscrapers: Sao Paulo gripped by construction fever

In recent years, the destruction of houses and small buildings has continued almost everywhere in the Brazilian megalopolis of more than 11 million inhabitants. New towers are being erected in the landscape, already bristling with skyscrapers, for which the largest city in Latin America is famous.

It is in this context of “exacerbated verticalization and loss of heritage”, explains Rosanne Brancatelli, 60, that she created in 2021 with neighbors the Pro-Pinheiros association, which campaigns for the preservation of neighborhoods and the environment.

A resident of the wealthy Pinheiros neighborhood for 20 years, she lives in what is now the only block of houses, in the shadow of the new towers, a development coveted by developers.

"They call us every day to say 'Your neighbors have sold, you're not going to sell? You're going to end up surrounded by tall buildings,'" she laments. It counted no less than 80 simultaneous construction sites in the twenty surrounding streets.

This phenomenon is the result of a 2014 law on the urbanization of Sao Paulo. The text, called the Master Plan, planned to densify areas near public transport routes, to allow more residents of different social classes to live near the center and bus and metro stations.

The very cosmopolitan economic capital of Brazil was built through waves of internal and foreign immigration and grew in the XNUMXth century, becoming a gigantic and bustling metropolis where trips can last hours.

“Real estate boom”

In recent years, thanks to an improvement in the real estate sector, investors, taking advantage of the 2014 law, have embarked on the race for “verticalization”. And the figures are dizzying: according to the condominium manager Secovi, the number of new apartments per year on the Sao Paulo market increased from 23.000 in 2015 to 82.000 in 2021.

However, the objective of allowing low-income families to find housing near services and transport has not been achieved at all, according to urban architect Raquel Rolnik.

“We are experiencing the biggest real estate boom in the history of the city, an accelerated vertical transformation which has no link with the real needs of residents,” she protests, emphasizing that the megalopolis At the same time, we are experiencing a social crisis with tens of thousands of homeless people.

The town hall itself recognizes that the objective was missed, given the construction of high-end buildings, inaccessible to the most modest. To remedy this failure, the municipal assembly voted last June for a revision of the Master Plan which will allow even more construction.

“The more supply there is, the more prices will fall, so our idea is to extend the densification zone on either side of the transport axes so that the working classes can live there,” says Rodrigo Goulart, municipal councilor and rapporteur of the text.

Builders who reserve part of the new housing for social housing will have the right to build more surface area.

Pieces of history

“The latest census indicates that the population of Sao Paulo is no longer growing. It makes no sense to continue to build more if there is no demand,” judges Alexandre Fontenelle-Weber, director of ZeroCem, an institute specialized in urban planning.

For some Paulists, these are also pieces of history that are swallowed up by bulldozers.

Stefânia Gola, 51, has owned the bar and musical space "Ó do Borogodó" since 2001. She fears that her business, "the most emblematic samba place in Sao Paulo" according to her, will also be razed, after all the surrounding houses gave way to buildings and the owner asked him to leave the premises.

“Here it’s the last bohemian corner of the neighborhood, all the places of samba and Afro-Brazilian culture have disappeared,” she adds. “We’re fighting to stay because we’re part of the city’s history.”