Entre margens: uma cidade em camadas - 14ᵃ Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo

Project implementation: Brazil
Project development: Brazil

Students: Caroline Jahn, Fabiane Calistro, Guilherme Staub, Yan Kruchin

Between Margins: A City in Layers is a project that seeks to reconcile Porto Alegre with Lake Guaíba, redefining one of its greatest symbols of separation: the Mauá Wall. Porto Alegre has always been shaped by its relationship with water—a presence that, over time, has become both an identity and a challenge. Once a space for gathering and leisure, Guaíba is now also a physical and symbolic boundary, marked by floods that expose the vulnerability of urban infrastructure to climate change.

Built as a barrier against flooding, the wall ended up separating the city from its shoreline, transforming contact with water into an absence. By trying to contain the river, the city contained itself, relegating the lake to an inaccessible backdrop. The proposal recognizes this rupture and seeks to transform it into an opportunity: it reconfigures the wall not as a barrier, but as a seam between the natural and the constructed, between past and future.

The project redesigns this rigid border as a space for gathering, circulation, and permanence. An elevated promenade connects the Historic Center to Cais Mauá, restoring pedestrian prominence and offering spaces for leisure, contemplation, and active mobility. Green strips and bike paths run along the route, aiding urban drainage and providing environmental comfort, while the pier's warehouses are reactivated as cultural, gastronomic, and community hubs.

Its materiality reinforces these principles: a lightweight and sustainable structure, made of engineered wood and prefabricated modules, with green infrastructure solutions – such as rain gardens, permeable pavements, and native vegetation – increasing urban resilience in the face of extreme events.

Entre Margens doesn't erase history: it recognizes the city's layers, its boundaries, and contradictions. The Mauá Wall remains—but now, it's ground. It's a path. It's a city.

Participate in the program of debates, workshops and associated activities!

TODAY (10.10)

2:30 pm – table Risk-Free Periphery in the Context of Climate Change

4pm – table Knowing to Transform: Community Climate Risk Reduction and Adaptation Plans

6:30 pm – table Inclusive Adaptation: Nature-Based Solutions in the Peripheries

9am – Drawing Workshop: Oscar Niemeyer's Architecture in Ibirapuera Park and the Climate Challenge

IN THE NEXT DAYS (11 to 14.10)

ATTENTION the table Palmas: For 36 years, the ecological capital of Tocantins which would be held on 10/11 | 7pm was canceled.

11.10 and 12.10 | 9am – workshop Inventa(rio) Fronteiras: Playing for Multispecies Cities

11.10 | 10am – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 11am – table Learning to inhabit the Anthropocene: the crisis of architecture

11.10 | 2pm – table Architecture for Learning and Civic Use

11.10 | 3pm – table Culture and Public Architecture

11.10 – 15h – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 4pm – table Reconnecting with Nature & Circular Design

11.10 | 5pm – table Architecture of Belonging: Interpreting Heritage Through Place

12.10 | 10am – table Experience: Climate Refuges and Naturalized Public Spaces, with Eco-Neighborhood

12.10 | 10:30 am – table Childhoods and Climate: Climate Justice in Vulnerable Territories

12.10 | 10:30 am – Windsock Workshop with the Floating Collective

12.10 | 3pm – table Doing a lot with a little: architectures for a planet in transition with Esteban Benavides from Al Borde office

12.10 | 4:30 pm – table Earth – building a sustainable and democratic future

12.10 | 5:45 pm – table French presence at the Biennale and screening of the film AJAP – Albums of Young Architects and Landscape Architects

13.10 – activity Pantanal Action at IABsp

10/14 | 10am – table Urgent Panorama! Space as an act of permanence

14.10 | 6pm – Launch of the “Nature-Based Education” Guide

JOIN! IT'S ALL FREE!

And there's much more until October 19th!

NOTE OF CONDOLENCE

With deep sorrow, the Brazilian Institute of Architects – São Paulo Department (IABsp) mourns the passing of architect and landscape architect Kongjian Yu, a global leader in ecological urbanism, and the members of his team who accompanied him, tragically killed during the filming of a documentary. The institute is honored to have had him as a participant in the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, where his transformative vision strengthened the dialogue between global challenges and local realities. IABsp emphasizes that Yu's contribution, which transcends borders, will remain an inspiration for generations and expresses its condolences to China, to the families of all the deceased, to his friends, and to all those impacted by his genius and dedication. Read the full note here.

Between margins: a city in layers

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul