Presentation short abstract

This paper explores projects of retrofitting underutilized buildings in São Paulo through the conceptual lens of repair. I explore how these projects carry complex relationships to histories of the modern and how they reflect the complexities of reparative practice in contemporary cities.

Presentation long abstract

This paper explores the historic built environment of the centre of São Paulo as an infrastructural scaffolding for a changing city. Long understood through the lens of abandonment and degradation due to the presence of both extensive homelessness as well as low-income occupation, the centre of São Paulo has resisted state efforts at revitalization for decades. In the contemporary moment, however, a concerted state effort, including an increasingly authoritarian police presence, has dramatically reshaped the centre and seemingly managed to bring in significant new investment. In this paper I explore one component of this process: the retrofitting of historic buildings. Retrofit projects include formal builds that have been implemented by real estate developers who sell a vision of a city marked by mid-century modernist architectural forms, as well as the work of housing movements who occupy and repair empty, often debt-burdened buildings in the service of social housing.

Situating these developments in a longer history of property and politics, this paper explores ongoing projects of retrofitting as examples of reparative practices. Here, reparative practices refer to projects that link forms of material modification with desired social change through attention to the built environment. I consider these projects as examples of the complexities of reparative practice in contemporary cities, and explore how these retrofit projects carry complex relationships to the modern and the modern infrastructural ideal in São Paulo. This paper contributes to ongoing debates about the politics of repair and the possibilities of “reparative infrastructures” in cities of the South.