ABSTRACT
The Social Service of Commerce (SESC) Pompeia combines the reuse of the buildings of a former Irmaos Mauser drum factory with three newly constructed concrete towers. SESC is a non-profit organization, founded in 1946 and funded by private companies, that aims at improving the welfare and quality of life for the working-class people and the local community in general, through offering health care, sport, and cultural activities. SESC Pompeia is a place for leisure and education through offering social services, recreational sports, and popular cultural and creative activities and aims to reach out to different age groups and social classes. The actual transformation of the factory buildings is a minimal intervention: stripping back the buildings to reveal their basic structure and tectonics through removing the plaster and sandblasting the walls. Since the opening in 1986, hardly any interventions are made to the complex, which reveals the true sustainable and flexible character of the project.
