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Jaraguá 160
São Paulo, Brazil
image: Lauro Rocha | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
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GC2021 finalist
Location:
São Paulo, Brazil
Category:
housing
Phase:
design development
Updated:
20 March 2023
We want to transform the status of shared spaces for tenements families, from lack of choice into choice: Jaraguá160 is a house in a fast gentrifying district, where 3 migrant families of the garment industry workers (currently organized in a cooperative) will live, 2 of them led by single mothers. Through a participatory design process, the spaces will be transformed to match their needs, resulting in a home where sharing means joy and pleasure.
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Introduction
Gentrification in Brazil’s major cities is making a live-in dignity nearly impossible for low-income families. In São Paulo, the organization FICA is introducing the concept of social landownership to counter the increasing wealth divide. FICA crowdfunds property in different ways and rents it at non-speculative prices. One of the projects is Jaragua 160, a house bought in june 2021 in the fast gentrifying garment district of Bom Retiro in São Paulo. The house will be inhabited by three families of migrant workers of the garment industry that are being organized in a cooperative, two of them led by single mothers. 
The families are used to shared spaces since they have a history of living in the neighborhoods´s cortiços (tenement houses), subletting rooms of bad quality at high prices with shared bathrooms, kitchens and laundry. But in this situation of forced sharing, it often means tension, gossip and fights.  Our challenge is to transform the status of shared spaces for the families, from lack of choice into choice. Once the families move, we will run a careful hearing and participatory design process will be done. The spaces will be transformed according to tenants needs and desires, resulting in a building where sharing means joy and pleasure. 
tenement house in São Paulo

image: FICA | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
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Impact

Jaraguá160 is part of a bigger project developed by FICA in Brazil. Through impact investment, which allows reaching a faster pace of fundraising resources for buying houses, FICA intends to withdraw real estate units from the speculative market and offer healthy and quality housing. Besides that, a huge improvement to the tenants (most of them women, preferably) would be the existence of a formal contract of house rent. By the end of 2022, FICA is compromised with having 10 families living in their properties, all of them originally from tenements context. 

Jaraguá160 will be a reference point and anchor of a comprehensive project to making housing viable for the entire community, as it will function as an organization model and horizon of possibilities. From the functional and architecture point of view, Jaraguá160 will be a lab for solutions regarding small and shared spaces, as the common spaces are shared not only by other individuals, but by other families. 

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Core team

FICA (Association for Community Property) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization whose objective is to provide housing in downtown São Paulo with affordable rents for low-income families. Founded in 2015, it created the figure of the social owner (social landlord) in Brazil, an actor that did not exist until then.
The institution is recognized for its knowledge of alternative ownership models and expertise in social and affordable rental. Through partnerships, it has sought solutions for improvements and interventions in tenements, precarious and overcrowded housing, where the abusive rent paid by tenants fuels the vicious cycle of precariousness and violation of rights. Website: www.fundofica.org

The future tenants of Jaraguá160 are part of the seamstresses' cooperative that is being hosted and developed at Casa do Povo, a cultural center in Bom Retiro district (same neighbourhood of Jaraguá 160 house). While Casa do Povo is working with the seamstresses so they can own their work and get rid of exploitation from garment industry middlemen, FICA would provide the same independence in the housing issue, setting the tenements' middleman aside. 

FICA and Casa do Povo held a fundraising campaing together during the pandemic in 2020 called FICAemCasa.

Seamstresses' cooperative at Casa do Povo.

image: CasadoPovo | © all rights reserved
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Image gallery
Jaraguá160 house (not yet renovated)

image: Lauro Rocha | © all rights reserved
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Jaraguá160 house (not yet renovated)

image: Lauro Rocha | © all rights reserved
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Jaraguá160 house (not yet renovated)

image: Lauro Rocha | © all rights reserved
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Jaraguá160 house (not yet renovated)

image: Lauro Rocha | © all rights reserved
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Jaraguá160 house (not yet renovated)

image: Lauro Rocha | © all rights reserved
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Technical drawings
Jaraguá160 house plan

image: FICA | © all rights reserved
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Jaraguá160 work room

image: FICA | © all rights reserved
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External links
Help bring our project to life!
19 October 2022
Goal reached: Stuff - Materials
We have received a lot of building materials and furniture from donors who were renovating their houses and would throw everything away. These donations include stone from bathrooms/kitchens, wood from cabinets and shelves, doors, windows, and also tables, chairs, fridges and microwaves. Everything was in good conditions and had almost no signs of former use.
19 October 2022
Goal reached: Skills - Design
19 October 2022
New supporter: Ruína Arquitetura
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7 October 2022
New supporter: Maggie and Mark DOMAT
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Show previous updates
29 April 2022
Campaign Video
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20 March 2023
New supporter: Valentina Riverso
Valentina Riverso, an A--D ambassador, is part of the architecture project's comission for the Jaraguá house. Thank you, Valentina!
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26 January 2022
Moving in
In december 2021, the tenants moved in. FICA helped hiring the truck to carry their furniture and stuff. 
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12 November 2021
Basic renovation

We have renovated the building in basic aspects - roof, wall and floor coverings, wooden doors/windows, electric and hydraulic systems. We have also implemented the piped gas supply system, which costs were donated by a FICA's supporter. This was an important step regarding the fire safety in the building.

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12 November 2021
The tenants

Selecting the first tenants to live in Jaraguá160 was a long process. The first seamstresses that were chosen by the cooperative to be the first tenants had to go back to Bolivia. The seamstresses cooperative had to meet and elect once again who would fit the best in the house. 

The chosen tenants composed a 3-generations family: an elder couple, their son and their daughter, and the daughter's husband and 2 kids. They all currently live in a tenement house with other people and pay a high price with informal rent. 

They are going to move in next month. We are currently identifying what furniture they already have and what furniture we need to provide. 

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Help bring our project to life!
Where are we now

We bought the house in June 2021. In July, would-be-tenants visited the house for the first time and felt at home there. A very basic renovation will take place august-september. In september-october 3 families are moving to the rooms (2 parents+2children; mother+1 child; mother+ 1 child, total 8 people). Once tenants are in, we start the process of hearing and mapping theirs experience in the house that will inform a more thorough renovation process. Design phase until january 2022, building phase during 2022, according to our resources. 

The team is composed by engineers/architects, and has financial resources to develop the legal, administrative and social model to run the house.

An indication of our team’s capacity:
30% funding already raised
80% expertise already found
100% materials / equipment already found
100% builders already found
Finance: € 16,450
The project's results will be a shared house, in which will live 3 families led by migrant seamstresses from a garnment district in São Paulo. Two of them are single mothers and all of them have kids, so the house will be important so the kids can grow in a safe and healthy environment. Through the funding, it will be possible to develop an unprecedented project/work in Brazil, which is in fact providing an architect solution to low-cost shared spaces for former tenements residents. 
  • furniture designer for small spaces
4,000
  • architect for small/shared spaces
6,000
  • building materials
2,500
  • assistant
3,000
  • taxes
950
Skills: Design
Eventhough FICA has a core team that can supervise and run the project, we still need an architect or designer to develop the specific solutions to small and shared spaces for the seamstresses that will live in Jaraguá160. The challenge for this project is designing solutions that can be replicated to other shared houses. 
Stuff: Materials
In order to renovate the building, it will be needed basic building materials in order to renovate wall and floor coverings, wooden doors/windows, electric and hydraulic systems. Apart from the basic interventions, the project could count on architectural elements to divide and organize the spaces, such as wooden partitions. 
Help bring our project to life!
Supporters
Location
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