Renewed landscaping is a new real estate investment | Value properties

It’s a growing phenomenon: projects that seek to save the nature of São Paulo by adopting native species from the state’s biomes and/or plants of historical importance to the territory’s culture.

In this new trend, the name of environmental activist Ricardo Cardem is almost everywhere. He has created a series of sustainable tools, such as Pocket Forest and Indigenous Orchard, which aim to restore the capital’s environment by replanting native species in real estate developments. He is responsible, for example, for the landscaping project Parque Global, by Benx Incorporadora, in the southern area of ​​the city.

More than 200 species of Atlantic and Cerrado forests have been planted in the complex, which will also include an ecological corridor linking Parque Alfredo Volpe to Parque do Panambi. For this work, the office Cardim Arquitetura Paisagística won the International Architecture Prize 2025, in September, in the category “Urban Planning”.

“One of the plants we used was a typical Brazilian herb, which had a lemon balm scent, and was used by the old herds who passed through the city to make tea and make blankets,” Kardem says.

Another emblematic project is O Parque, by developer Gamaro, in Brooklyn, where an ecologist has recreated the ancestral landscape of São Paulo, with a stream running through the pink jequitibás, Jatobás, Araribás and Perobas, in a public square of ten thousand square metres. He adds: “These are local trees that are threatened with extinction. They will last 300 years and other generations will see them.”

The promotion of this concept in the real estate market is good news for the city, says Kardem, who says he is very happy to see companies in the sector now interested in a more restored and sustainable type of landscape, which values ​​indigenous Brazilian biodiversity, considered the largest in the world. He added: “These green spaces will help reduce the impact of extreme weather events, especially those caused by heat islands in the capital, which are created by excess concrete and urban voids.”

One person who has also worked to bring more nature to the people of São Paulo is Benedito Abboud, whose most emblematic project within this philosophy is the Cidade Matarazzo complex, in the Avenida Paulista area.

There are more than ten thousand trees classified on a plot of land of 30 thousand square meters. Highlights include Abboud’s rooftop hanging gardens and terraces of Torre Mata Atlântica, which houses residential apartments and hotel units at Rosewood São Paulo.

“It was a request from the project’s creator, Alexandre Allard, that the forest ‘slope’ from the top of the building, as if it were a slope of the Serra do Mar mountains, and connect to the property’s historic gardens,” says Abboud.

Mature trees were used for the terraces, some of which were more than 15 meters high, requiring a logistical effort and special infrastructure to safely accommodate the plants. On the other side of the complex’s walls, Abboud also worked on creating rain gardens and planting trees spread along the Alameda Río Claro.

“All these plants made the climate more pleasant in the surrounding area, bringing back birds and people as well,” he analyzes. “As a result, the value of square meters in the area increased, attracting new development projects.” For Abboud, the city’s recovery of nature is key to rebalancing the climate, and the developers’ initiative could act as urban acupuncture, as these parks amplify their influence and impact across the capital.

In the Paraiso neighbourhood, the central region of São Paulo, construction company R.Yazbek will preserve the indigenous forest on the land where the MAM residential complex is being developed. The 800 square meter space and about 80 trees were created by Campana Brothers. The new landscaping of the area will now be carried out by Licuri Estúdio. “The developer’s decision to preserve the park allowed us to work on the landscape from an environmental and artistic point of view,” says Andre Graziano, partner at the studio.