ABSTRACT
Part of a remarkable national network of Social Service of Commerce (SESC) across Brazil which run as non-profit organisations focused on the welfare and life opportunities of workers and their families. Large spaces were left open to appropriation with minimal interventions and pieces of furniture specifically designed for SESC Pompeia populate the space. As Rowan Moore has written of the castle-like structure and the village of activity that Bo Bardi clustered within it: [t]ogether, the castle and village make a genuinely democratic space, where people wander, play chess or football, sunbathe, perform or watch a performance, and make or view art. An important element in the architectural construction of many SESCs is development at a site where the SESC has already begun to provide services ‘in a more improvised way’. As Sara writes, 'All the key spaces within the conversion remain interconnected, giving the impression of a "loose-fit", almost squatter programme'.
