Retrofitting abandoned public buildings as a strategy for social housing in the centre of Rio de Janeiro
Just like many city centers in the world, Rio`s has degraded areas with urban voids. In a country with such elevated housing deficit and transportation problems this issue has to be properly addressed. The government itself owns many buildings in the center that are abandoned for years. These have been squatted by homeless families with the help of social movements.
Our project intends to turn these buildings into social housing with communitary spaces that can be used by its inhabitants as well as the neighborhood. It intends to help fight our housing deficit and also revitalize degraded areas in the city center.
Our priorities are the community`s participation in all phases of project, adaptation of the buildings to solutions of energy conservation and better use of natural resources.
About You
About You
First Name
Carol
Last Name
Rezende
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Associação Chiq da Silva
Organization Website
Organization Phone
55 21 22275834
Organization Address
R. Miguel Lemos, 41 cob 03
Organization Country
Brazil, RJ
Country where this project is creating social impact
Brazil, RJ
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Retrofitting abandoned public buildings as a strategy for social housing in the centre of Rio de Janeiro
Describe your project
Just like many city centers in the world, Rio`s has degraded areas with urban voids. In a country with such elevated housing deficit and transportation problems this issue has to be properly addressed. The government itself owns many buildings in the center that are abandoned for years. These have been squatted by homeless families with the help of social movements.
Our project intends to turn these buildings into social housing with communitary spaces that can be used by its inhabitants as well as the neighborhood. It intends to help fight our housing deficit and also revitalize degraded areas in the city center.
Our priorities are the community`s participation in all phases of project, adaptation of the buildings to solutions of energy conservation and better use of natural resources.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
What makes your project unique as it relates to the theme of this competition?
Retrofitting abandoned public buildings (we have a lot, since our capital changed to Brasilia) in the centre could be an interesting way of both fighting Rio’s huge housing deficit and helping in the revitalization of its degraded city centre. Besides that, all the the project is done with a participatory process, giving the future inhabitants the power of learn and chose. The process doesn´t finish with the refurbishment. The commun areas inside each project is responsable to encourage interaction and cooperation of the occupants and the local community in order to turn the building into a diffusion centre of similar social urban movements and an educational environmental awareness. The commun areas also provides the money to pay the buildong bills, despite it offers courses for the community and can prepare meals to sell in the collective kitchen, as an example.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
In 2004, a group of more than 60 disadvantaged and homeless families got organized with the help of a Social Movement called “Central de Movimentos Populares”. After careful research they squatted a building that belonged to a governmental Institute, and was abandoned for more than 10 years in a very degraded area in Rio de Janeiro`s city center. They cleaned and fixed up all they could and divided the spaces among the families. The squat was a form of protest against the lack of low income housing in the city. That was the beginning of “Ocupação Chiquinha Gonzaga”. In December of 2006, our group was asked by "CMP" to elaborate a project for the refurbishment of this 12-storey building. The immediate purpose was to serve as a tool of empowerment for the families’ struggle for proper housing. In 2008, the project got funding from a newly created Federal Program of support of social housing (FNHIS) not only for its completion with all the complementary projects, but also for social projects in order to help the community to improve their internal organization and to create income generation cooperatives. During this process, we were contacted by other squatted building communities who heard about the project and wanted to do the same. The first initiative helped some of them to get funding from the same program but just for projects in a first moment.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Who or what (i.e. youth, women, environment, etc.) benefits from your project, and why is your project critical?
The main beneficiaries of the project are the 69 families of OcupaçãoChiquinha Gonzaga, the pilot project, who will get money for their buildings` refurbishment. In another level, all the families in the other communities who got funding for projects that will help them fight for their housing are beneficiaries. In a more indirect way, the Social Movement will get stronger by the success of the experience and this will empower popular initiatives.
We believe that such a project can be a starting point for both physical and social improvements in the area where it’s located becoming a centre of diffusion of social and environmental awareness that can spread throughout the city and even the country.
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured.
So far, this Project has been successful because what started out as a voluntary and uncertain action in an informal settlementbecame official as it became part of a Federal Government plan. Becoming official,(and legal) is the first step towards theregularization of the families’ legal situation and their right to proper urban infrastructure such as light, water and sewage.
For the pilot project, we`ve got funding for the building`s refurbishment, due to start out this year. This first experience helped empower the social movement, encourage other communities to fight for their rights and raise the society`s awareness of the problem creating more pressure over the government to take action.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101 - 1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1001‐10,000
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The amount of money from Federal programmes is still too little. IT´s really hard to find Refurbishment Programmes. So the money to build a small house far away from downtonw is not enough for an apartment in an existing building.
As it is a new iniciative it´s quite difficult to make the land regularization and even if to approve the projects. The burocracy is certainly an enemy.
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
The idea is that in Ocupação Chiquinha Gonzaga (which is the only one who has money for the refurshiment) the families will participate in the works along with professional contractors, learning the skills and supervising its evolution. Since the money is not enough for everything, they will even provide services, such as painting, in order to participate on the refurbishment’s funding. We are currently searching for partnerships with institutions and NGOs to help the families to settle the communitary activities in the building such as the digital inclusion room, the library, turning it into a centre of diffusion of social and environmental awareness.For the rest of the communities which have just got the fund for the architectural projects we will search for financial partners.
Sustainability
For each selection, please explain the financial and non-financial support from each
Both of the supporters are from the same Federal Program called Fundo Nacional de habitação de Interesse Social(FNHIS). Te main amount of the money is from National government (Cities Ministery), but the state needs to give a small amout as its part of the programme.
In Ocupação Chiquinha Gonzaga project was like this:
Phase one of the project (conceptualization, participative process and preliminary design) had zero cost since the working space, computers and plotting were donated by the architects, institutions such as the French Consulate and others.
Phase two (completion of the project to an Executive Project Level with all the complementary projects and legal requirements such as city hall approval) has just been completed and was funded by the Federal Program (FNHIS), it costed 40.500 reais.
Phase three (actual refurbishment of the building) will begin after the government completes all the legal requirements for the contract with the building company that will have to hire a percentage of local workers.
The government will spend over 1.800.000 reais in the refurbishment, but it’s still not enough to do all that is intended in the project, this money will be used for the basic, infrastructural part of the work. Therefore, our group and Central de Movimentos Populares with the families are still searching for private funding and partnership with NGOs that can help continue not only the refurbishment part, but the communitary activities we have thought of for the building.
How do you plan to grow and/or diversify your base of support in the next three years?
We plan to aplly to othes Programmes of social housing from federal an regional government such as Minha casa Minha Vida. This is the newest programme from the Cities Ministery. Besides that we will try donations from material companies.
Collaboration
Please select your areas of intervention in the home improvement market
Financing, Design, Technology, Technical assistance, Property rights, Sanitation, Infrastructure, Renewable energy, Green housing, Income generation, Urban development, Citizen/community participation, Public policy.
Is your innovation addressing barriers in the home improvement/progressive housing market? If so, please describe in detail your mechanisms of intervention
This project is all about home improvement, as it addresses all the issues in retrofitting a squatted buildings and adapting it to new sustainable solutions.
Since these are buildings, we decided to consider it`s common spaces as part of the houses, which also had to be improved. The project as a whole intends to encourage interaction and cooperation of the occupants and the local community in order to turn the building into a diffusion centre of similar social urban movements and an educational environmental awareness.
The Key features are:
. Individual projects for each one of the 69 apartments, designed especially for each family’s needs and space economy.
Regarding environmental sustainability:
. “Plug-in” façade modules, that can block the sun but not the ventilation with space for drying clothes and growing plants.
. An all new infrastructure system set in one of the empty elevator shafts that spread inwards to the apartments through an existing over dimensioned ventilation system. It includes a water recycling system.
Regarding economical sustainability:
. Collective workshops for income generation.
. A collective kitchen so they can prepare meals to sell.
Social Sustainability
. A day-care center for and managed by the building’s women.
. Rooms for courses, lectures and expositions that can be used for the whole community nearby.
. Digital Inclusion center.
Are you currently collaborating with private companies, or have you partnered with private companies in the past? With which companies?
Please describe in detail the nature of the partnership(s)
Select the unit(s) with which the partnership was formed
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 | 118 weeks ago Chiq da Silva updated this Competition Entry. |
| 118 weeks ago Chiq da Silva submitted this idea. |
