Pilar: A Porous Threshold
Viktor Verswyvel
Master Architectuur
2025 — 2026
studio
ISTT
promotoren
Nathan de Feyter
Mariana Moura
Mucio Juca
A view into one of the social housing complexes
A co-creation workshop to identify the scale, function, and materiality of the 1-on-1 intervention
A participatory workshops to identify certain problems and future desires within the Pilar Community
The final result of the intervention
Pilar: A Porous Threshold
In Recife, Brazil, the Pilar community’s older social housing lacks maintenance, causing friction with local culture and driving residents to implement informal spatial adaptations. This study investigates these practices in underutilized courtyards and public spaces using Design Driven Participatory Action Research (DDPAR). A thematic analysis identified six themes of informal culture, leading to a collaborative design-build workshop with UNICAP that successfully materialized a physical 1-to-1 intervention supporting these practices.
The Pilar community, located in Recife, Brazil, has faced a turbulent history of structural problems. While recent municipal efforts have successfully delivered new social housing and a public square, the older social housing blocks have been systematically forgotten. Lacking long-term maintenance and public services, these standardized structures do not align with the dynamic needs of the local living culture. Consequently, this friction has led to various spatial improvisations and informal adaptations implemented by the residents to support their daily lives.
This research investigates this friction, by analysing certain motives behind the informal practices. Specifically, this study focuses on the dynamics of the underutilized, inner courtyards and the public space surrounding these older residential blocks.
Through the Design Driven Participatory Action Research (DDPAR) methodology, local residents engage as active co-researchers by providing valuable information such as, historical contexts, irritations, problems, and future desires. This qualitative data was collected through various methods, such as preliminary desk research, informal interviews, walk-along talks, photovoice, and several workshops.
A thematic analysis following up on these results revealed six recurring themes regarding the informal living culture: the neglect of collective spaces, the privatization of galleries, greenery, informal stores, a futmesa table, and street reclamation. These insights translated in a design-build workshops in collaboration with UNICAP. Although this process was characterized by complex power dynamics and cultural disagreements, it ultimately materialized into a meaningful physical 1-to-1 intervention that served as a prototype, which successfully facilitated already existing informal practices.