The combination of Brazilian designers and concrete almost always gives rise to the most inspiring places. The endless concrete of São Paulo by contrast seems to suffocate rather than inspire. Twenty million people live in the Serra de Concreto, the concrete jungle. Enormous social differences and the lack of social control mean that most of the city's public space is no exception to the general grey scalelessness.

The project seeks to redefine the indoor and outside public realm of São Paulo. In the centre of the city, at an abandoned railway yard, I have projected a park containing a museum of photography. The park, which derives its great sense of space from a system for naturally purifying the water of the river alongside it, is configured in the format of the extremely successful shopping malls. The museum, these days often an exclusive playground for high society, has been designed as a vertical arrangement of plazas. Referring to the urban space of metro stations in its material form and routeing, it marks the return of art to a place accessible to all.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Christoph Grafe, Alan Brookes