Charitas Waterfront

Charitas Waterfront is a landscape requalification project situated within the broader network of public spaces of Guanabara Bay. Its transformation represents a unique opportunity to reimagine the bay not as a linear edge, but as a living system shaped by transversal relationships—linking mountains, city, and sea in response to present and future climate challenges.
The project adopts a transversal reading of the landscape, understanding the waterfront as part of a continuous environmental gradient. From upland watersheds to coastal ecosystems, natural dynamics are brought into dialogue with urban form, allowing ecological processes to inform the design of public space. This approach seeks to produce integrated and resilient interventions that address historical layers, social life, ecological systems, and infrastructural needs simultaneously.
Rather than operating at a single scale, the project investigates the landscape across multiple dimensions—from territorial flows to site-specific conditions—recognizing that coastal resilience depends on coordinated action across systems. Public space becomes a medium through which environmental adaptation, cultural memory, and everyday use intersect.
Charitas Waterfront is conceived as an open and evolving framework. Given the scale and complexity of the site, the project acknowledges that its development will be shaped over time through the contributions of diverse actors. The proposals presented are intentionally flexible, designed to absorb new knowledge, community input, and changing environmental conditions.
In this sense, the project is not a fixed solution, but a collective process—one that positions landscape as both infrastructure and commons, capable of adapting, learning, and growing alongside the city and the bay.