Water permeates the city of Recife. The Venice of the Americas, as Gilberto Freyre described it, was born where the Capibaribe and Beberibe rivers meet the sea, and its identity arose from its condition as a quasi-archipelago. The flattened topography, almost without relief, covered by mangrove swamps and indented by streams, rivers and lagoons, forms a constantly moving urban landscape.

Today, however, the rivers are extremely polluted and piles of accumulated rubbish can be seen in all the canals. Along the watercourses, different areas have been occupied by favelas or pile houses, offering miserable living conditions. The illegal city lives with various absences, among them the lack of urban infrastructure, which is linked to the appearance of serious infectious diseases that have long been eradicated in other Brazilian cities. In the area of urban policies on social housing, some advances are taking place. Recife was the first Brazilian city to impose specific legislation for areas of housing settlements occupied by low-income groups.

One of the aims was to make official the demarcation of occupied land, guaranteeing that the resident population, traditionally marginalized or evicted, would not be transferred to other neighborhoods, integrating these areas through regeneration projects. Recife town Council, by means of a plan called Capibaribe Melhor, is restructuring the banks of the city’s main river with the creation of a system of parks and free spaces, the construction of new housing units, and the establishment of a system of basic urban infrastructure services. Twenty-one communities will benefit from these projects, among them a small area close to the centre known as Caranguejo Tabaiares. Established in 1910, on an arm of the Capibaribe River next to Ilha do Zeca and Tabaiares Avenue, the community structured itself around the Canal do ABC, with its polluted water, establishing a network of winding, narrow, sometimes insalubrious streets. In addition to the precarious nature of the access routes, there is no sanitary drainage system or adequate water supply and no waste collection system or formal energy supply.

The Council has recently drawn up another plan for the regeneration of this area. Houses considered to be unsafe – in other words, those with an area of less than 18m2, or those that are pile houses – are to be removed. Wider streets would need to be created, based on the existing structure, to facilitate the passage of lorries, fire engines and ambulances. The system of urban infrastructure would be regenerated, and three hundred and fifty houses would be constructed in free or dispossessed areas, keeping the population in the same place. The Ilha do Zeca, a large green area that continues to resist construction, is used for leisure as well for as shrimp cultivation in the fish ponds located there. The Canal do ABC, linked to an arm of the Capibaribe, functions as a through route for small fishing rafts.
The proposal presented here aims to maintain the characteristics of this community and to incorporate the premises detailed by the Council in its plan for rebuilding the area.

1. The project begins with the city/water association. Waterway links between the parks and free areas along the Capibaribe River, promoting connections to the city that previously did not exist or which were not visible. Water once again plays a structural role in public space, simultaneously serving as a landscape and an access route to the proposed programs. The Ilha do Zeca could be officially declared a public park.

2. Construction of the waterfronts. Within the community, the extension and cleaning of the Canal do ABC enhances its value and facilitates transport. The construction of a new quay – an extensive platform – has been proposed; what was once a dirty river bed now turns to face the Capibaribe.

3. Urban integration. a new system of paved roads and paths, based on the existing network, establishing different connections to the streets surrounding the community, lending permeability to the whole area. Access routes are widened and addresses guaranteed to the inhabitants. Public squares, small and large, and pavements between houses are enhanced and restructured.

4. Establishment of urban infrastructure. Systems for supplying water, collecting and treating sewage, and energy and telephone lines should be created as a matter of priority for the community and the immediate surrounding area. The possibility of being able to clean the rivers depends on these actions, which directly affect the design of public space.

5. Permanence of the community in the area. Currently there are 1083 houses. Using the criteria proposed by the Council, the houses in areas of risk will be replaced. The construction of four hundred and four new housing units has been proposed, ensuring that those living there will be able to remain. This new settlement has been planned in a way that would avoid using all of the existing empty land, which is now residual, and which will be classified as free public space.

6. Connecting free spaces according to the needs of the community: the crèche, the market and its square, the new site of the community library, created in 2005. The Praça da biblioteca facilitates a link between the avenue and the heart of the neighborhood, revealing the presence of water. The existing school will also be ex- tended to this place of communal activity. Recife has the greatest number of waste re- cycling cooperatives in Brazil. The transportation of waste through the river is a fitting alternative: a cooperative has been proposed, with road and waterway access routes.

7. Houses. Low four-storey buildings that can be interlinked give rise to different
dwelling designs, depending on the need and location. This new typology can be incorporated by other plans. In Caranguejo Tabaiares, the buildings are linked and constitute just one double, longitudinal strip. This unit is repeated transversally in a way that allows two new waterfronts to be configured: one for the Canal do ABC, the other for the arm of the Capibaribe. The buildings have been conceived in a way that makes it possible to meet the reduced budget levels anticipated by the Council, making it possible to build in stages. As the climate is hot and humid, the ceilings are high and allow for cross ventilation. There are large eaves on both sides, albeit with different characteristics: one is a horizontal access route, and the other is the veranda of the apartment.
The façades face four different directions, and each is equipped with a solution that allows the degree of sun exposure to be adjusted. The expression of the construction is the mediation between sun and shade.
The houses have been planned to offer a variety of internal spaces that are able to adapt to the diversity of the families. Despite this variability, they all use the same riser pipes for water, reducing construction and maintenance costs. The ground floor units are slightly elevated, reducing humidity and the risk of flooding, and guaranteeing privacy. Part of the ground floor will be free, creating shady areas in continuity with the public space, and will be completed with commercial areas, bakeries, pharmacies, bars, all the basics of daily life.