trans SSA: a plan for an archipelagic city in salvador de bahia, brazil

trans SSA: a plan for an archipelagic city in salvador de bahia, brazil
all images courtesy of mariachiara mondini and blerta copa

following their experiences within salvador de bahia, brazil, mariachiara mondini and blerta copa wanted to implement an architectural scheme that would complement the existing urban fabric. this setting, completely different from that to which they were accustomed, has stimulated their willingness to research, starting from the origins, in attempt to understand a society built on the basis of multiple influences, conflicts, segregation, and overlaps. the space of the context, through the imposition of his physical nature, represents the scenario in which many worlds and endless stories coexist. the analyzations have led to the proposal of an ‘trans SSA’, an archipelagic city formed by hegemonic islands, that through the tool of gentrification, direct the current development and minority lands. according to mondini, ‘it’s precisely within the last one that I find the main tools of the project: the urban practices that have a strong capacity of modification of spaces and urban lifestyles.’

cycle of fishermen 

system of free time 

the resistances presented by this site are essential to the affirmation of a hybrid identity, allowing salvador de bahia to escape from the classifications and standardizations that tend to impoverish the community. in this way, the processes of construction are reversed that, through the tool of urban planning, establishes influences to divide the hegemonic islands while superimposing to it a network of factors that both unify the smaller bodies and integrate them into the larger collection. at the same time, they want to abstract themselves from an metropolan reality considered inconvenient, and it is precisely this distancing that endangers their existence.

cycle of popular culture 

cycle of homelessness

due to these constraints, mondini and copa have arrived to the description of a city that moves in the space ‘between’, which develops during pauses and grows through the generation of combined functions. the fundamental tools of this approach are the networks that, starting from the minority plots, expand themselves and overlap the existing buildings, claiming their right as a part of the infrastructure. the texture of this archipelago is composed by small interventions that interact with the larger scale.

salvador as an archipelago

project interventions

CURRENT SITUATION: hegemonic city•formal / minority city•informal 

current situation: hegemonic islands, free zones, and minority islands

proposal: inversion of influences from minority islands to hegemonic areas

proposal: cycles and systems of relationships that compose networks 

intersections of cycles and systems

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.