Architect Chico Rocha spoke about “Social Mobilization and Architecture” at a SEMAPA group seminar

Public policy students, architecture, teachers and even a public prosecutor sat and listened attentively to architect Chico Rocha presenting some projects of his own, with emphasis on the Escola do Mangue Project, in the city of Recife, within the SEMAPA – Social Mobilization and Architecture seminar, this Tuesday, the 17th, in the public policy department building at CCHLA/UFRN.
In his speech, the architect narrated the emergence of the Coque favela, tracing a history that led to the need to build a school and how his creative workshop O Norte – a center for the production of architecture, design, visual arts and cultural projects, worked with the idea of ​​this demand.
Chico Rocha reported that "the decision to open the building to the Capibaribe River determined the spirit of the enterprise: a place of educational training concerned with the environment where all the classrooms open onto a polluted river, and which would be observed, cared for and transformed. The “L” shaped implantation generated a courtyard of precious spatial quality both as a transition between the river and the building and as a place to breathe and contemplate the mangrove. The proposed spatiality reaffirmed the importance of the river and facilitated educational and curricular work of the school to reinvigorate the riverside vegetation and transform the landscape surrounding the building. This initiative not only completely altered the landscape over the years, but also changed the name of the school itself, which was renamed Novo Mangue”. The school's project was selected to represent Brazil at the Venice Biennale in 2016.
The architect also spoke about other projects, with emphasis on one in Altamira and the one that is the subject of his master's study, here at UFRN, a cultural, coexistence and leisure space on the bank of the Potengi river, next to the Passo da Pátria community.
The professor participated in another event of the Society, Environment and Development research group of the Public Policies department of the Center for Human Sciences, Letters and Arts at UFRN, with professor Dr. Fábio Fonseca Figueiredo as mediator, who after the guest's explanation opened the seminar for interventions and questions to the speaker.
Seminar organized by the SEMAPA group had architect Chico Rocha as a guest. Photography by Flávio Rezende.