São Paulo 360 - as seen from Predio Italia

Predio Italia is one of the buildings in town with a top deck (and a very expensive restaurant) where the city can be viewed from the top. Let me take you on a little tour. The day I went there was a Sunday with a quite clear sky (São Paulo standard) - what you see is the ever present fog created by it's 20 million inhabitants. Check out the little pool on the foot of that sylindric skyskraper. Many buildings have in town have pools on the roofs for it's inhabitants.
The wave-shaped apartment building occupying most of the photo above is Oscar Niemeyer's Copan building. It is the largest concrete stucture in town. I've been told Oscar Niemeyer is the architect in the world to have produced most buildings. São Paulo is certainly full of them.



On the two photos above is Praça da Republica, one of the central squares. Every Sunday, as on every other free lot in town, there's a marked. On this particular marked you can find artesanals as well as a corner for food, mainly maritime. Other markeds have fresh vegetables, antiques etc.
City, city, city...

The sudden sun

The golden hour at sunset and sunrise lasts for just a short whisper this near equator. In no time the sun fully penetrates the gloomy night sky every morning, revealing the clouds and paints golden contours on them before she fills them up completely with bright light and demonstrates their translucency.

At this time of year she rises before six in the morning and keeps it going for more than 12 hours before she suddenly disappears again from the horizon, leaving the unprepared in despair. On my way to Ilha Grande for Easter I was told to bring a flash light for this specific reason, not getting trapped on any of the unlid trails between the bearly inhabited beaches.

The picture above is from Angra dos Reis around 6 in the morning, where I was waiting for the boat to Ilha Grande.

A home with a garden

This family with dogs occupy a patch of grass between two of the busiest roads in the centre of Sao Paulo. They've set up some kind of shelter at the far end. I think of the old fortresses with moats around them for protection, in the same way this family has found it's sound island in an ocean of sharks. The dogs are the guardians if anyone should trespass all the same.

However bizzare, this is not a uncommon living situation in Sao Paulo. I've observed more permanent settlements in similar situations, some that has even planted small crops of corn on these 'gaps between'.

A school of architecture will always be a school of architecture

Approaching Faculdade de Arquitetura e urbanismo (FAU) I found a peacefully placed block of concrete in the midst of trees. It reminded me of my own home school of architecture in Norway, Bergen School of Architecture (BAS), which is also a big block of concrete, however vertical. The mild climate allows a fully open structure into the interior, and only auditoriums have walls and doors, not to keep warm or cool, but for acoustic reasons.

The first days of school was nothing but carnival performed by the fresh students. Samba drums were played, body paint distributed and sleeping in the halls after singing and dancing.

FAU has four floors connected by wide ramps where students circulate. On the bottom level is a large auditorium and some offices, and the ceiling is penetrated by bright daylight. The middle of FAU is a large space filled with the immensity of just air.

The main floor is used for multiple purposes that require space, like an exhibition. Just now there's an exhibition of Brazilian projects that has received recognition from FAU.

First year students cleared the exhibition for a couple of days during their nude studies. A cultural difference from Norway, where nude studies would be performed in a closed space in respect of the models. There generally seams to be much less sexual taboos in Brazil than most places I have been.

Overlooking the main floor comes the library, the diner, print shops, offices and computer labs. On top are the five open studios and finally a corridor of the many smaller auditoriums.

The rough interior of FAU allows for messages to be written with chalk on the walls concerning changes of location and such.

Inland ships

Raging mega structures, residential giants, are found all over São Paulo. The demand for housing in this ever increasing city is never ending. However many of them are totally abandoned, whilst more than 2 million people in San Paulo have nowhere fixed to live. The ecomonic difference between rich and poor is so big it's impossible for someone on the lower level of the ladder to afford decent housing. There exists organizations that storm such buildings to squat there, because 'if you don't have an address you are nobody.'

The picture above shows one of these clusters 10 minutes from my house near the centre of town.


This second picture is a newer stucture in the calm area of Villa Madalena, the alternative area of town. It used to be populated by artists and Paulistanos like describing it as the citys 'Soho'. Now it is however a popular place for upper class citizens and students from this respective social class.