Active facades, which are emerging today as a trend in cities, are actually a reinterpretation of the old shopping streets and galleries that characterized São Paulo before the advent of shopping malls. The proposal is to restore coexistence on the sidewalks, bring more life to the streets and reconnect buildings with public spaces.
Strengthening neighborhoods through mixed-use buildings with an active façade is supported by studies, recent legislation and consolidated experiences in São Paulo. Examples such as Conjunto Nacional and Copan illustrate this historical integration, while contemporary developments, such as those at Eixo Platina in Porte Desenvolvimento Urbano SA, in the eastern district of the capital São Paulo, are renewing the model by promoting large amounts of trade, services and new employment opportunities.
“The biggest challenge is to make everyone understand the importance of active facade projects as generators of security, comfort and urban coexistence,” notes Igor Melro, Commercial Director of Porte SA. “Commercially, there remains a challenge in aligning investor expectations with the values retail operators can pay, and ensuring business sustainability,” adds Melroe.
Active facades were included in the São Paulo Strategic Master Plan (PDE), released in 2014, and in the 2016 zoning law, to expand the public sidewalk alignment through commercial use of the ground floor open to all and not just the project’s residential unit owners. The idea was to return the ground floor to the city and offer a “compact city” proposal, avoiding long journeys and where people could reach commercial establishments (such as bakeries, mini-markets, pharmacy, laundry and other services) without the need for vehicles.
In addition to the economic debate, different urban solutions to the challenges of climate change are discussed. Among the discussions at the COP30 in Belém, proposals for so-called “smart cities” included technology (to control greenhouse gas emissions), the need for urban integration and security, as well as social inclusion.
Through this proposal, active facades and their impact on urban mobility are used to reduce the risk of the formation of heat islands – pressure zones between buildings and traffic concentration, preventing wind movement and cooling the local atmosphere.
But this result will only be possible if the facades are truly capable of continuously generating dynamism, with structures that remain open for many years, creating new local connections and customs.
This is a difficulty in the capital, São Paulo. Although the laws encourage active facades and bring social and economic benefits, recent data from the São Paulo Business Association shows that between 60% and 80% of these spaces remain empty in São Paulo. “Occupying active facades requires broad coordination between different actors in order for these areas to play their part in revitalizing the city and stimulating relationships of proximity and belonging,” says Port’s Melroe. “There is also a need to pay attention to the facade occupancy of the property, which should provide adequate infrastructure for tenants, and not just carry out construction to comply with the law,” he adds.
Working to integrate and market these spaces requires an understanding of local urban demand. “Ground floor retail leasing needs to be planned to suit this community and achieve financial viability,” says Paulo Pinheiro, Director of Asset Management (GAT) at Porte SA. “It is not enough to hand over the property. Companies committed to active facade projects need to manage this occupation according to the characteristics of the neighborhood. This is what we do in Port.”