The architectural firm Natureza Urbana has just completed an extensive urban
revitalization at the historic center of São Luís – Maranhão, focused on qualifying
public spaces, improving the interlocution with the existing heritage and boosting the
local micro-entrepreneurs market.
The projects were part of a program created to revitalize the historic city center of the
state capital of Maranhão, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The firm led 3 important renovations: one at ‘Praça da Misericórdia’ (Mercy Square),
other at ‘Praça da Saudade’ (Saudade Square) and another at Fonte do Bispo
(Bishop's Fountain), an area around a bus station on Vitorino Freire Avenue.
"Requalification projects are a strategic tool to update the use of public spaces –
especially those with historical and cultural value –, and insert them in new urban
dynamics," says Manoela Machado, urban planner and partner at Natureza Urbana.
The initial motivation for the revitalization were the security problems around the
2-kilometers shoreline that surrounds the bus terminal, indicating that only an urban
intervention would be able to encourage the use of these spaces by the public. The
same problem could be also found in other squares of the city, which inspired a joint
transformation. In 2018, with financing from the IDB, São Luís city hall started the 3
interventions coordinated by Natureza Urbana.
In a participatory process, the population expressed its vision and participated
sharing information and suggestions through workshops. Teams of social workers
registered the peddlers in order to guarantee that all of them would be considered
into the new spaces, either through kiosks, small stalls or adapted vehicles such as
bike foods (ideal for street vendors).
At ‘Praça da Saudade’, previously irregularly occupied by peddlers and deeply
degraded, the use of the area as a meeting and leisure spot was limited. The place
is located next to a cemetery, hence its name (Saudades means ‘to miss someone
you love’), and was occupied by many improvised flower stalls.
Natureza Urbana proposed a project that provides unity, organization and a better use of the existing free area, in addition to enabling the integration of local equipment such as food stalls, magazines stalls and taxi stops. Previously characterized by a large cemented area and a lack of green, the square gained grass mounds to expand the vegetation, masonry bleachers and new space for florists, who now serve the cemetery visitors with more structure. The roofs are made of glued laminated wood from reforestation. Both the roofing elements and the rest of the space have a fluid aesthetic, in reference to the Lençóis Maranhenses’ sand dunes.
