The Brazilian government’s decision to spend billions of dollars building soccer stadiums for the recent World Cup drew protests in days leading up to the games. The stadiums are expected to continue to cost the country $250,000 per month to maintain, according to Huffington Post.
Now two French architects, Sylvain Macaux and Axel de Stampa of The 1 Week 1 Project, have proposed a plan that would put the vacant venues to use. The architects’ project, called Casa Futebol, would transform each stadium into a affordable housing complex to help combat the city’s shortage of housing deficit and poverty.
The plan calls for between 1,000 and 2,000 housing units to be built into each stadium — resulting in about 20,000 new homes.
In the months leading up to the games, housing prices skyrocketed near the World Cup stadiums with Brazil’s poorest taking the brunt of the burden. A quarter million Brazilians were either evicted or threatened with eviction due to rising rents near the stadiums, according to a report in Al Jazeera.
While some Brazilian soccer fans expressed worries about redeveloping the iconic stadiums for housing, the architects said that under their plan, the stadiums could still be used for soccer.
Macaux explained the proposal should be considered a “thought project” intended as a viable solution to Brazil’s housing crisis.
