The City is For Playing

Installation / Public Space
Sao Paulo, Brasil
2013
Tires. Urban Spaces.

The City is For Playing ephemerally hacked two of Sao Paulo´s most central highlines for the Virada Cultural festival. Viaduto do Chá and ‘Minhocão’ (elevado Costa e Silva) under spaces remain abbandoned decades after their construction and are the perfect examples of wasted spaces of the modernist metropolis.

Just with some swings made of ropes, reused advertisement outdoors and discarded tires, we transformed the use of this wasted spaces into vibrant, playful and diverse Places.
Workers and commuters, who normally avoid the areas, feel atracted by the balance of the giant swings.
Homeless people living under the Viaduto do Chá, started pushing the lonely visitors, receiving some money as gratitude.

‘Use’ is the soul of spaces. As Jane Jacobs announced, places full of people, are safer and happier.