Unsolicited Architecture/Dadatown

Fiona de Bell
Roel Schoenmakers

WHERE: Sao Paolo, Brazil
WHEN: 11 - 13 November 2011
WHAT: Workshop on working in public space
WHY: Exchange between artists and architects
WHO: Fiona de Bell (NL), Roel Schoenmakers (NL), Patricia Martins (BR), Renata Pedrosa (BR), Thijs van Bijsterveldt (NL), Paul Zuidgeest (NL) and Gentil Porto (BR)
WITH: Nai (Netherlands Architecture Institute) and Sao Paolo Lab

UNSOLICITED ARCHITECTURE/Dadatown

The second workshop to take place at the Dutch pavilion during the Sao Paolo Architecture Biennale 2011 from 11 till 13 November was centered around unsolicited architecture and the activation of public space.
A team lead by Gentil Porto (BR) and consisting of Patricia Martins (BR), Renata Pedrosa (BR), Thijs van Bijsterveldt (NL), Paul Zuidgeest (NL), Fiona de Bell (NL) and Roel Schoenmakers (NL) came up with a number of proposals for use of the outside of the OCA building and eventually successfully executed one of them.

Workshop statement:
'The proposal wants to test the limits of the continuous space idealized for the modernist park. At the Ibirapuera Park, the horizontality of the free space and the emblematic strength of Niemeyer’s buildings assume a complementary relationship – buildings are monuments to be contemplated in the landscape, stablishing limits between public space, ‘outside’ and architecture, ‘inside’.
The proposal suggests an effective continuity for the park where buildings are platforms for other uses. The Oca is a ‘hill’ that invites to be climbed, occupied in a search for verticality, for a panoramic view. In the same way the theatre, a big slope, can be the acces ramp for the unused marquise, the very ‘living room’ of the park.
In DADATOWN we borrowed chairs and tables from the neighbour restaurant and crafted a rope ladder to help us occupying the OCA slope in order to have a discussion about unsolicited architecture.'

'Ativando usos e potenciais urbanos.
A proposta pretende testar o limite do espaco continuo idealizado para o parque modernista. No Parque do Ibirapuera,  a horizontalidade do espaco livre e a forca emblematica dos edificios de Niemeyer assumem um carater de complementaridade - edificios sao monumentos a serem contemplados na paisagem estabelencendo limites entre o espaco publico ‘fora’ e a arquitetura ‘dentro.’ 
A proposta sugere uma relacao de continuidade efetiva para o parque onde os edificios sao plataformas para outros usos. A Oca e um ‘monte’, ‘morro’, que convida para ser escalado, ocupado, na busca por verticalidade, por uma vista panoramica. Da mesma maneira o teatro, uma grande ladeira, pode ser a rampa de acesso para a marquise a ‘sala de estar’ inutilizada do parque.
Em DADATOWN emprestamos cadeiras e mesas do restaurante vizinho e confeccionamos uma escada com corda para nos ajudar a para ocupar a inclinacao da Oca e realizar nossa conversa sobre unsolicited architecture.'  

images by Thijs van Bijsterveldt