Brazilian architect Carlos A. Teixeira and his Minas Gerais, Brazil–based firm, Vazio S/A Architecture and Urbanism, have conceived with a concept to bring attention to their country’s most polluted waterway: the Tietê River. Known for its “toxic foam”—a not-so-appetizing cocktail of São Paulo’s sewage, street litter, and oil—the river was declared biologically dead as far as 160 miles downstream in the 1990s. However, thanks to the city’s mayor and local NGO’s, life was restored to 100 miles of Tietê in 2011.
Teixeira aims to provide more attention to the river through his design for a public space right by the water’s edge. He proposes a platform to be set atop of pre-existing pillars to form a walkway to “[not only] draw attention to the human impact on the river, but to offer a community an appealing temporary public space in the meantime.”
Though still in its fundraising phase, Teixeira and his team hope to start building by next summer. “In a city that lacks public space and green areas, we are going to inaugurate a new possibility of public space where there are already invisible public spaces in the city, like on this forgotten river,” he says to Curbed.