Pictured above: Paul Kariouk and John Stelluto enjoy the view from one of the walkways of Sesc Pompéia.
By Paul Kariouk
In December of 2024, I had the opportunity to visit São Paulo along with Kariouk Architects Design Associate John (João) Stelluto, who grew up in the city. During our visit, we toured the Sesc Pompéia, one of 40 community complexes operated by the Serviço Social do Comércio (Sesc). Adriana Dias, Sesc’s press officer, guided us through this impressive facility created to improve trade workers’ quality of life through community-focused centers. Sesc is a private non-profit company financed mostly through a payroll tax on commerce, tourism, and service businesses. These centres offer a wonderful array of amenities designed to help build healthy communities such as sports facilities, communal kitchens, libraries, and cultural programming. There are similar types of organizations elsewhere in Brazil and throughout South America.
As a professor of urban planning and architecture and someone concerned about liveable cities and the lack of affordable housing in Ontario, I was particularly struck by the scale and ambition of these complexes. Here are some key observations:
- South American countries, especially Brazil, embrace community centre projects and social housing on a scale unheard of in North America. Imagine a YMCA transformed into a vast multi-building campus with integrated housing and you’ll begin to understand the scale of these complexes.
- There has been an ongoing commitment to hiring top architects to design the community complexes in Brazil to ensure they are major attractions for users in the surrounding areas.
- Building with quality materials and techniques ensures longevity for these complexes, reducing the need for costly and disruptive redevelopment and ultimately saving money.
- Funding for maintenance — including simple landscaping — has to be in place for the long term to continue to draw users.
- Housing is integrated with amenities that foster community interaction — not relegated to undesirable areas far from services that individuals and families need and want.
While Sesc doesn’t provide housing, many similar organizations throughout South America do. For example, I also visited the Complejo Bulevar Artigas in Montevideo, Uruguay — a modernist housing project that is still well maintained.
We’ll explore some of these ideas further below.
A view from under the walkways between two of the sports towers of Sesc Pompéia, designed by Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi invited by Sesc São Paulo.
Constructed in the 80s, the three towers were designed to house sports facilities, multi-use rooms, and a water tank. In the larger building on the right, the sports areas including a pool, sport courts and gymnasiums are stacked vertically with one large space per floor.
The walkways connect the skinniest of the three towers on the left, which includes the elevators, stairs and offices, with the larger tower that contains the larger courts and gyms. Separating the vertical circulation allows more space to be dedicated to the sports facilities and more light and ventilation in the tower that houses them. It also makes room for a groundwater corridor on the ground. Separating circulation from other building functions is a hallmark of modernist architecture, and in this case helps to give a sense of hierarchy to the three buildings for visual variety.
The complex also includes a renovated heritage factory whose many sub-buildings house gallery spaces, creative workshops, stages for theatre and music, and a cafeteria/restaurant/kitchen that sell food but also provide food bank-style meals to those who need them.
Inside one of Sesc Pompéia’s renovated heritage buildings, in this case, an art gallery space. The roofs of the factory buildings are too low for sports facilities, thus the need for the newer concrete towers shown above.
The original 1930s structure housed a fridge factory. When Sesc acquired the property, they mandated its maintenance and renovation. The original structure is in brick and wood, and Bo Bardi’s renovations are mainly in concrete and steel. In this way, traditional and modern realities are brought into harmony.
This water feature was designed by Bo Bardi as an homage to the São Francisco river in the northeast region of Brazil.
The Role of New Materials and History in the Rise of Modernism
But first, let’s take a quick look at the role of modernism in the rise of these community complexes.
You can’t have an architectural revolution without a revolution in structural engineering — otherwise it’s just a change in style or decoration. (Likewise, to paraphrase architect Oscar Niemeyer, you can’t have an architectural revolution to aid the masses without a prior social revolution.)
Modernism, as most lay people would recognize it, began in the late 1800’s with the development of steel (replacing iron), reinforced concrete (concrete with steel rebar), and plate glass, which enabled taller buildings with a smaller footprint that let in much more light. There was a considerable overlap between modernism and communism/socialism, and one of the key ideas of the modernist agenda was housing for the masses, as people were continuing to leave rural agricultural areas for jobs in the city. Modernism was also very strongly associated with providing more hygienic conditions for the middle and lower classes in order to limit the spread of disease.
This push for social housing intensified in Europe after the devastation of cities caused by World War I and World War II, which is why you can find incredible modernist housing projects in places like Holland, France, Germany, and Austria that still function really well, are well lit and clean, and remain widely sought out as choice housing.
In contrast, in the more capitalistic cultures and more stable democracies of USA and Canada, modern architecture and the more egalitarian social values it was based on did not take hold to the same extent. Capitalism had defeated socialism by World War II and the idea of universal, quality housing paid for by the government was largely abandoned.
Modern buildings, especially housing, became associated with educated and wealthy elites who could pay for nonstandard construction and large windows. For example, Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 complex in Montréal was designed as a prototype to house the middle class (thereby reducing suburban sprawl), but is now considered luxury housing for highly educated upscale people.
Inside the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), perhaps Lina Bo Bardi’s most famous building. On the second floor, the artworks are exhibited in a non-structured way, hung directly onto glass plates which are supported by concrete blocks so that they appear to float — just as the museum itself is a glass box that seems to levitate between two giant reinforced concrete frames. Traditionally, art is exhibited in “rooms” within a gallery, with art from different eras kept strictly separated. The open format of the MASP reflects the architect’s collectivist views.
MASP not only houses an astounding collection of national and international art, it serves as a gathering place for cultural events, political events, and informal gatherings. In this way, art and political life are brought together by the building.
The building’s iconic elevated structure was the result of a mandate by the city government to preserve sight lines to lower-lying areas of the city. Bo Bardi respected the requirements imposed by the municipality by burying half the building and elevating the other half. MASP opened in 1968 and since then the elevated half has become a historic gathering site that is synonymous with São Paulo.
(Photo: MASP Brazil, by Wilfredor, made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.)
Modernism in South America
In South America, modernism is strongly associated with the working class. Many countries, especially Brazil, adopted modern architecture much more fully than the USA or Canada, especially for projects aimed at housing the broader population. With fewer historic regulations than in Europe to constrain development, South American cities had more freedom to adopt modernist principles. Additionally, many European intellectuals and architects who faced political persecution in their home countries (as well as war, lack of jobs, poverty and hunger) relocated to South America, influencing the region’s architectural ethos — at least, during periods of left-leaning governance. For example, Oscar Niemeyer, arguably Brazil’s most celebrated architect, was a passionate communist throughout his life and a member of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB). He remained so despite the impact on his career and his life when the right-wing military dictatorship of 1964 – 1985 took hold and he was forced to flee the country.
A culture of large-scale, socially-minded projects flourished throughout South America, particularly in Brazil, that are still in great shape 60 years or more after construction. They are well maintained and loved by residents, and while they are primarily built from reinforced concrete (which we now know has a large carbon footprint) the buildings are lasting really well in Brazil’s warm climate. The use of concrete also harmonizes with the surrounding older masonry buildings.
These community complexes include sports and recreation facilities, gardens, daycare, and sometimes housing, and they are a thriving part of the everyday urban fabric. For example, on nice summer days, Sesc Pompéia may be visited by 10,000 people from the surrounding adjacent areas.
Meanwhile in the USA and Canada, proposed community housing projects often didn’t get built — and if they did, they tended to languish due to lack of funding for ongoing maintenance, including for the landscaping. Construction quality tended to be secondary or very low grade, which exacerbated maintenance issues. As a result, these facilities frequently became worse ghettos than the ones they aimed to replace.
Despite significant wealth disparities in São Paulo, there remains a strong societal commitment — from both private industry and government — to reinvest in the community. Contributions from trade unions, which are more prevalent in Brazil, play a crucial role in sustaining these initiatives. This support system has endured through various political shifts and continues to drive community housing development today.
The Praça das Artes, a cultural complex located in the historic center of São Paulo, near the Municipal Theater. Designed by Brasil Arquitetura, it opened in 2012 and was created to provide a space dedicated to the production, education, and dissemination of the arts, integrating various cultural expressions in one setting.
It cuts through a dense urban block and connects the cultural complex to the surrounding neighbourhood through several entrances from the streets — it really invites one in.
The day we visited there was a children’s orchestra playing classical music. Public concerts like these take place under the larger volume, sheltered from the weather but allowing passersby on the street beyond to take in the music.
Inside Oscar Niemeyer’s Simon Bolivar Auditorium, at the entry hall. These stairs and ramps take you to the entrance of the theatre.
The auditorium is part of a series of buildings that compose the Memorial for Latin America, a cultural, historical, political, and leisure complex designed to promote exhibitions, conferences, debates and theatre performances, especially those that reflect Latin America’s struggle for freedom. There is also a large library devoted to Latin American issues and a gallery of folk art. All the buildings and “landscape” were designed by Niemeyer, and the building was inaugurated in 1989.
This extraordinarily generous open space invites you to move, circulate, and experience the architecture in three dimensions. This characteristic applies to all of the modernist buildings we visited in São Paulo.
The Role of Architects in Society
In South America, architects have often collaborated closely with political leaders on both ends of the political spectrum, particularly mayors, who continue to see them as key partners in shaping cities. By contrast, in North America, architects are seen by both governments and property developers as an obstacle to overcome during projects, because architects tend to advocate for better design and materials that last, which waters down profits.
That being said, South American cities should not be seen as utopian paradises with public recreation centres on every corner. The disparity in wealth between the rich and the poor is much larger in South America, with capitalism and neoliberalism in full force in most neighbourhoods. Apartment buildings are often gated or even double gated. Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa’s egalitarian experiment of Brasília never achieved its utopian aspirations in part because the architectural goals weren’t supported by change in social structure: in spite of the fact that Niemeyer designed housing complexes that were intended to give the same living experience to all classes of people, workers ended up living in ghetto-like satellite neighbourhoods.
Dedication to Greenery
São Paulo also has a great deal more greenery despite being a much larger and denser city of over 22 million inhabitants. There are more public parks, and even the highways are surrounded by concrete embankments that include walls of greenery. Over 50% of Sao Paulo’s territory has vegetation coverage of some sort; either a public park, a forest or a garden. For example, Ibirapuera Park, the site of Niemeyer’s Biennale Pavillion, dedicates a massive 390 acres to greenery and cultural activities in a very dense and central part of the city.
Ottawa, the city of just over one million people where I live, desperately needs larger and centrally located parks like this. While trees cover about 46% of the region, according to a 2019 NCC assessment, the area assessed includes Gatineau, Québec. Further, the overwhelming majority of that green area is not in Ottawa’s most dense urban areas where it’s sorely needed — it’s on the periphery and accessible only to those with cars and enough leisure time to make driving there worthwhile.
The Biennale Pavillion by Oscar Niemeyer in Ibirapuera Park. Niemeyer designed the park and also several of the buildings.
Each facade is designed to deal with specific solar conditions. While the other facade is more transparent, this facade is composed of aluminum fins that work as a brise-soleil.
The Pavillion hosts the São Paulo Book Biennale and São Paulo Fashion Week amongst other cultural events.
Circulation inside the Biennale Pavillion, featuring its iconic and very beautiful ramps.
(Image by Sailko – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37969668)
Lessons for Ontario’s Cities
São Paulo’s approach to architecture and urban planning offers important lessons for cities in Ontario and beyond. By integrating high-quality architecture, long-term maintenance planning, and a focus on community-centered amenities, the city demonstrates how thoughtful design can address social challenges and foster a sense of belonging.
Instances of excellent architecture and care for public spaces are not limited to 20th-century modernist architecture. Sesc São Paulo, for example, continues to add to the built environment through architectural competitions for their new centers. In late January 2025, this social enterprise announced an ideas competition for five new locations. In the competition brief, they state that “Sesc São Paulo’s decision to hire architects for their projects through competition […] reflects the institution’s transparency and its notable concern with the quality of the large living spaces […].”
While the cultural and political contexts differ, the underlying principles — prioritizing inclusivity, durability, and green spaces — are universally applicable. Ontarian cities have an opportunity to learn from this model, adapting it to our local needs to create more vibrant and equitable urban environments that serve everyone.
IMS Paulista by Andrade Morettin Arquitetos, who won the design competition for this cultural and historical library and exhibition space.
The IMS, or Instituto Moreira Salles, is dedicated to preserving Brazil’s arts and cultural history and promoting new artistic expression. Its facilities house tens of thousands of photographs, records, drawings, books, and writers’ papers. You can learn more about them on their website.
The facility is open to the public. On the fourth floor, there is a lookout over the city and a café.
Photograph by Nelson Kon.
