Hestia

Project for an innovation hub in Porto Alegre.

Located on an irregularly shaped land, clearly the result of a surplus of urban subdivision, the project sought to give life to an area that is still underused in a nerve center of Porto Alegre - at the confluence of major avenues, giving access to the Conceição, one of the main entry and exit points of Porto Alegre, and right next to the Santa Casa Hospital Complex and the central campus of the Federal University of RS (UFRGS).

The complex, called the Hestia Innovation Center, would be linked to UFRGS, serving as a technology and innovation hub, incubating start ups and leasing offices for companies, fostering a complete ecosystem along the campus. The project was daring in several ways. The volumetry broke the parameters of the Master Plan for the site, creating a more harmonious volumetry, providing a large square next to the busiest avenue that would also serve for pedestrian traffic along the land, connecting the UFRGS campus to a square equipped with commerce and services in the complex. The most striking building was the block that would serve as a business incubator, located in a large semi-transparent prism that floated above the avenue, at the entrance to the tunnel. The project did not run.