Lajeado Square
Located in the district of Lajeado, extreme east of São Paulo, the football field between the streets João Carrasco and Itaberaba Açu was built in 2004 by mobilization of the residents after river channeling that existed in the place.
Although precarious, the space became the official site for the community football leagues and its improvement (in addition to the construction of other equipments) has been the residents demands for a long time. Coordinated by the Instituto Sou da Paz, the project for the renovation of the square in Lajeado is a good example of a public-private partnership for the requalification of public spaces in the city.
Besides improving the square environmental quality, the goal of this work was to develop a process of union among the residents, using the discussions about the future of space as a tool for the construction of new relations between different social actors of the community: football, the mothers (who had already organized the neighborhood library), the church and the rap.
Thus, the architecture project was part of a larger process, preceded by a careful work of choosing places of action and by slow approximation between residents and educators, through cultural and sports activities that aimed promoting the gradual increase of participants and the representativeness of various groups present in that community. Through meetings between residents, architects and educators, discussions were organized to understand local needs and, through drawings, models and budgets, was possible to define and develop the project.
