MOVING HOME: PRELIMINARY DRAFT OF SOCIAL HOUSING AND CENTRO POP RUA FOR THE HOMELESS POPULATION.
Architectural Project. Social Housing. Railway System Heritage. Homeless Population. Adequate Housing.
This professional master’s degree’s final work, structured as a technical report, presents an adaptive reuse project of a building listed as national heritage of the railway system, and intends to turn it into housing to the homeless population and to implement services tied to Centro Pop Natal, focusing on the creation of the housing unit. The main subject of this work addresses the housing shortage in Brazil, the precariousness faced by the homeless population and the ineffectiveness of Brazilian public policies, highlighting the urgent need for safe, sustainable and socially inclusive housing solutions. The general objective of this work is to develop an adaptive reuse architectural project that meets the concept of adequate housing, considering the specific needs of the homeless population and the characteristics of the territorial context of Natal. The specific objectives include: understanding the needs of the homeless population and the territorial challenges; examining the quality criteria for social housing; and defining project guidelines of intervention based on the conditions of the building and the new Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) program. The development of the project encompassed a theoretical and conceptual background, reference studies, characterization of the land, identification of dilemmas and project goals. The process was mapped and registered from the earliest stages of conception until the definition of the design concept. The achieved result is a project that balances the preservation of the railway system’s heritage with the functionality of a social housing program, prioritizing habitability, environmental comfort and community integration.