What if…

What if we could swim in one of the most polluted river of Brazil?

Long Description

The Pinheiros River, in São Paulo city, is a degraded river. It went from the clean river, where people used to practice sports to the deposit of trash and sewer river. Around it, power lines, railroad and car lanes hid the river from the population.

This project aims to create diagonal floating structures which experiments the cleaning of a small portion of the waters of Pinheiros’ and a floating pool which re-approaches people to the river.

These hexagonal structures are going to be created modularly with varied functions. The first one is the decontamination of the water. Some of them are going to work as a water treatment station based on natural experiences like permaculture, ecovillages, agro forestry etc., using plants, natural filters, aeration structures and tanks with fish.

The second function is a floating swim pool to rescue the river as a space of leisure and coexistence. The pool is going to be attached to the hexagonal floating structures used for decontamination.

The third function is to modify the visual, sound and olfactory landscape aiming to reintegrate the river with the life of the city. The floating plants are going to recover the visual and soften the smell and noise pollution – common challenge for megacities.

Today the city of São Paulo is suffering with climate change effects. This project aims  to re-approach people to the river and show that it is not the villain of the city, but it is one of the solutions for the climate challenges.