SANTANDER TOWER E JK IGUATEMI MALL
São Paulo, Brazil
by Isabel Duprat
The land object of this work, which received the Santander Tower and the JK Iguatemi Mall, both blocks designed by Arquitectonica, is on the right bank of the Pinheiros River in São Paulo.
When I started the project, the block A, future Santander Tower, had its slab already built, and the main access turned to Avenida Juscelino Kubitschek. The external area, provided for this access by the architectural project, was a space destined to the circulation of cars, including a section for planting that, due to the structural calculation, would only hold a groundcover, not a garden.
I then drew a large stone patio, which would receive the building in its proportion, cut by a water line that would act as a tributary of the river, with clean, transparent water whose level would slowly decrease as if entering the earth. The car and the pedestrian would circulate on the same floor, only separated by beacons. I chose a pointed granite for the patio, whose gray color would prevent the car tires from causing damage. Back then, with a little attention, we could predict water supply problems and it would be unreasonable to think about washing the floor constantly. The layout of the stones with rectangles of different sizes caused a soft shadow and light effect, moving nuances on the ground under the sun. The planted area that surrounds the patio and, therefore, partially, the limits of the land, would be a reference to the riparian forest, but with stone walls assuming the urbanity of the river. The idea was to avoid reproducing the natural margin of the river, which is impossible, especially in a river whose bed has been rectified, but to refer to an incorporated natural landscape. A good way to think about this theme is looking the successful examples of recovered rivers cutting through cities around the world and how they came to be part of life in these places.
At the back of the building, bringing the linear shape of the water mirror, two large orthogonal flowerbeds were designed to expose all the sculpted beauty of the Calycophyllum spruceanums contained by a white stone bench with an organic design, whose serpentine shapes would replicate in the project, bringing a counterpoint to the formality of architecture.
With the project underway, Santander Bank took over block A and I was asked to fulfill the owner's desire to have olive trees in this garden, a great passion of his as a collector of these beautiful trees. The best place I thought could receive these exotic trees would be the Calycophyllum spruceanums garden, which was somehow more isolated from the riverbank. I proposed, instead of the rectangular flowerbeds, a small square with organic shapes and the olive trees planted in random groups, not a linear planting. The previous design had been thought for Calycophyllum spruceanums with their slender structure, so I created another design for the olive trees, more rounded and lower.
The other block would house the JK Iguatemi Mall. For the garden, dividing the two blocks, it was natural to continue the idea of the riparian forest, as another remaining niche. In this stretch, the way for the cars received the same granite used in the large courtyard, but with a layout in its scale, therefore, more uniform and reduced.
The sidewalk in front of the entrance to the mall that faces Chedid Jafet Avenue, made of pre-molded flooring in rectangular boards with a two-tone color difference to facilitate visual accessibility, received two large flowerbeds side by side with white azaleas, which bloom so well in São Paulo at the end of winter, like green and white waves separating and protecting the pedestrian from the intense movement of the street. The azaleas are punctuated by large trees, such as the Lecythis pisonis, covered in salmon color in their sprouting, and three imposing Carinianas that I introduced to the project, inspired by the large Cariniana that motivated the diversion of Avenida Faria Lima, in a nearby stretch, when it was drawn many years ago. They are beautiful Brazilian trees that are exposed on the white planes of the building. Just these three elements, nothing more.
Making a project by the river should be a tribute to the river, never avoiding it or hiding it because it is dirty, ugly and revealing our sloppiness. But rather, bring it to city life by facing this serious and anachronistic sanitation problem.
Often the concepts that govern a project are not assimilated and changes during the design process are requested to the detriment of the initial idea. This can also happen during the execution process that, whether in its quality or in its fidelity to the project, does not favor its implementation. And then ideas lose their vigor. This is not uncommon, which should not inhibit our dreams and reflections.
Project 2008 – 2011
Project area 15000 m
