Situated within Brasília’s Pilot Plan, on a site defined by its natural slope in the Administrative Region with the highest concentration of unhoused individuals in the federal capital. This public building is conceived to serve as a bridge between citizens and essential services social, psychological, and legal support, as well as public restrooms, laundry facilities, luggage storage, and a cafeteria with fluid ramped pathways thread through a sequence of interconnected platforms, distributing the needs program along the terrain that shapes the design’s architectural concept with a expansive Glulam roof offers protection for all.
309,998 people, that was the number of Brazilians living on the streets in 2024, according to OBPopRua/POLOS-UFMG. Of those, 8,313 are in the Federal District alone. The issue is alarming and It’s from this reality, through a critical lens on the potential of architecture within contexts of social vulnerability and, consequently, the social role of the architect — that this proposal emerges: the refuge.
We leave our homes to go to work, school, the market, the university, finally, we leave because life demands it. Whether walking, driving, or using public transport, we encounter people who, like us, are simply going about their routines within a complex urban life that finds in the public space its stage and everything it has to offer. We enter various buildings, carry out what needs to be done, and, at the end of the day, return to the comfort of our homes, and day after day, the routine sets in.
But what if there is no home?
When there is no home, everything shifts into a struggle to resist amid uncertainty, adverse weather conditions, and judgmental gazes, in a context which, sadly, year after year, becomes more alarming amidst urban chaos.
The street, the refuge, and the people shape the creation and concept of this project. These three elements organize the spaces through the proposal of a linear building, marked by a large roof shelters everyone and that floats above the ground and, as a consequence, it creates a space of free and comfortable access for the people who need its services, or simply wish to enjoy spaces of rest and landscape, through a nodal point that serves as a direct extension of the street through a subtle blend between public space and architecture.
From its open pedestrian access, the “street-building” allows people to benefit from a refuge grounded in the desire to use architecture as a tool for creating dignified, weather-proof spaces. More than shelter, it offers support toward building a better future and like homes, protects and enables living, providing the possibility of writing a new chapter in their life.
