Sede Ser Headquarters / Atelier 77

The expansion of the Ser Cidadão Headquarters in Santa Cruz, the west zone of Rio de Janeiro, embodies in architecture the commitment of a social organization to human and community development. Since 2002, the organization has been involved in projects related to education, culture, work, and health, promoting opportunities for youth in vulnerable territories. In 2006, it received a donation of a historic mansion, the former residence of doctor and senator Júlio Cesário de Melo, whose legacy of care inspired the very essence of the project: to build spaces that welcome, educate, and transform.

Located in the heart of the Pont district in Marcq-en-Barœul, the new Youth Center is set within a dense fabric of terraced brick houses with narrow, colorful façades. This domestic landscape, composed of plots barely five meters wide, forms a subtle palette of orange and brown tones. Within this intimate context, the challenge was to establish a dialogue between a 600 m² public building and the delicate scale of the neighborhood.

Located in Hillsdale, MI, Baw Beese House is a multi-generational lakeside vacation retreat. The project is a contextual response to social, familial, community, economic, and health conditions, allowing multiple generations of family members to safely occupy a place together or separately for years to come. The lake house comprises three distinct living areas, which can operate independently or together as a whole, depending on which family members are present at the time.

Cities bring together the best and worst of the human condition. They concentrate opportunities for work, social networks, and cultural production, but they also expose deep social inequalities. Among the many forms of urban exclusion are limited access to transportation, housing, leisure, or safety issues. One form that is rarely discussed is thermal inequality. In lower-income neighborhoods, where there are fewer trees, parks, and permeable surfaces, heat accumulates and thermal discomfort dominates, resulting in higher energy consumption and health risks. As concern about the climate crisis grows, this discussion becomes more urgent: extreme heat is no longer just a climatic phenomenon but also a spatial expression of inequality.