Arena BSB

1nd Place – National Architecture Competition

The Arena BSB project reinterprets the gregarious scale envisioned in Brasília’s Original Plan for 500,000 inhabitants, as described in “Brasília Revisited,” adapting it to the metropolis’s current population of over three million. The goal is to create a lively, open, inclusive, and integrated space that encourages collective appropriation as an extension of the city, rather than as an isolated or closed fragment within the urban context.

Achieving a balance between flexibility in occupation and unity within the complex is a key focus of the project. While enabling phased construction and various occupation possibilities over time, the design avoids excessive fragmentation and discontinuity. The aim is to accommodate diversity and unpredictability without losing the cohesion of the overall complex. The proposal aligns with the spirit of the Pilot Plan, revised to meet contemporary demands for accessibility, sustainability, and spatial flexibility. To achieve this, the design employs ordering elements (in architecture, urbanism, and landscaping) that integrate the complex’s diverse functions, both in scale and language.

The Boulevard serves as the convergence core of the complex, conceived as a flexible, active, dynamic, and accessible system. It is articulated by streets, squares, and organizing axes that connect the entire complex at various levels and link it to the surroundings through mobility plazas. The complex is interwoven with landscaping elements, designed according to the natural flow of water and scaled to human dimensions. The Boulevard incorporates the key qualities of contemporary active streets, which, in Brasília, are echoed by some characteristics of the comerciais (commercial sectors) in the Pilot Plan.

From the Asa Norte commercial areas, the Boulevard borrows the diversity of use, three-story buildings, shaded ground-floor galleries, active facades, and the possibility of phased construction. The Asa Sul commercial areas influence the continuous sidewalks, the unity of the ensemble and its horizontality, the adaptation to the topography, integration with the surroundings, and accessibility. The main difference lies in the street’s appropriation: while the Pilot Plan’s commercial sectors are intersected by heavy vehicular traffic, the Boulevard’s commercial areas are designed as pedestrian walkways, plazas, and promenades.

One of the project’s main challenges is to balance the scale of spaces for two extreme situations. On the one hand, the complex must accommodate thousands of people attending large sports and cultural events. On the other hand, it must ensure comfortable spaces for individuals or small groups frequenting Arena BSB during daily activities. The solution for balancing these scales is the use of an articulation and ordering axis (referred to here as the “platform”). In addition to housing various activities, this platform functions as an inducer and host, integrating the complex’s various levels and uses from the eastern to the western ends, while providing a smooth transition between large events (in the southern portion) and the Boulevard’s everyday activities (in the northern portion).