This year, the beginning of spring was marked by record temperatures in several cities across the country. In Campinas, some thermometers registered 40°C. Cepagri recorded temperatures of 38°C. One study conducted by students from the Institute of Biology (IB) and the Institute of Geosciences (IG) showed that the city had an increase of 1,2°C in average temperatures between 1989 and 2022. According to data from the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) , 40% of Brazilian capitals had the hottest winter in history. The climate emergency materializes in the lives of each of us in various ways, with ever greater losses for the most vulnerable groups. Heat waves are just one of several examples.
Recently, our Unicamp turned 57 years old, with much to celebrate. According to 2024 ranking of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, published last Wednesday (27/09), Unicamp is among the 351-400 best universities in the world and has the second best position among the best in Brazil and Latin America . In addition to the celebrations, the anniversaries serve to make us reflect on the future, on which University we want to be in order to remain relevant in the next 50 years. And topics such as climate change and sustainability have everything to do with this.
What university are we building? What do we want to be in 2050? The occupation of Fazenda Argentina, a portion of Unicamp that is within HIDS (International Hub for Sustainable Development) and which we call HIDS Unicamp, is part of this response. It starts from the premise that the University has a fundamental role in facing the challenges of facing climate change and sustainable development and that, in carrying out its fundamental activities — teaching, research and extension —, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must serve as a beacon that lights the way.
Therefore, we are investing in an occupation plan for Fazenda Argentina based on the principles of sustainable urbanism, which is capable of consolidating Unicamp's role as a provider of new knowledge, technologies and innovations for sustainable development.
HIDS originates from discussions about the possibilities of use and occupation of the Argentine Farm, acquired by the University in 2014 and which extended the area of the Zeferino Vaz campus by 140 hectares. Due to its potential to strengthen the innovation ecosystem of Campinas and the region, the proposal to create HIDS went beyond the walls of the University and began to cover the entire area of the former High Technology Center of Campinas (Ciatec 2), designed in the 1970s by professor Rogerio Cerqueira Leite. Today, in addition to Unicamp, 13 institutions, including companies, universities and research centers, are directly involved in the creation of HIDS. HIDS.
From 2020 to 2022, an agreement between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Unicamp and the City of Campinas resulted in a master plan for the HIDS area prepared by Korea Research Institute for Human Settlement (KRIHS). This occupation proposal suggests the creation of two denser centralities, with mixed use (including housing, corporate areas, commerce and services) and predominantly residential areas, within the most up-to-date precepts of knowledge production territories, which go far beyond parks technologies of the 20th century.
O master plan prepared by KRIHS allows the introduction of complementary activities in the region that will support the university campuses and research centers already present, enabling the full achievement of the planned objectives of creating a fourth generation innovation ecosystem, based on society and the knowledge economy and in the quintuple helix innovation model, which involves academia, government, industry, society and the environment.
In this context, the occupation of Fazenda Argentina — or HIDS Unicamp —, through research, development and innovation projects, is a window of opportunity for the implementation of the SDGs (CEUCI, 2022). And for HIDS Unicamp to consolidate itself as a successful project, it is essential that it is exemplary in its interaction with the environment in all its components: air, land, water, energy, flora and fauna.
Sustainability management in relation to HIDS' environmental heritage is based on two distinct but complementary concepts: the sustainable use of resources and the promotion of environmental integrity. The first incorporates practices already established in recent years and which characterize the different aspects of the green economy, such as the more efficient and rational use of water resources, the search for clean energy with low carbon emissions in production processes, the management of waste etc. The second is reflected in the set of measures that induce development, but that preserve natural resources, not only preventing their impoverishment, but creating the necessary conditions to promote resilience and the restoration of local biodiversity.
HIDS Unicamp
Our commitment to the United Nations 2030 Agenda goes beyond a simple formal fulfillment of its objectives, but expresses the conviction that these objectives are necessary for the transformation of our relationships with people and the environment. Therefore, we are investing R$6,2 million in the recovery of ecological corridors and water springs in the Fazenda Argentina region.
Furthermore, researchers from the Center for Studies on Urbanization for Knowledge and Innovation (CEUCI) made an effort to make the master plan prepared by KRIHS for the Fazenda Argentina area, which resulted in an occupation proposal that will be submitted for approval by the Unicamp community in due course. The main innovation of this proposal is the concentration of built areas, an essential condition for establishing a more sustainable model of occupation, with the maintenance of a large area of green and permeable areas.
The planned blocks represent 59 hectares of the total 140 hectares of the Farm area. Since the permeability rate must be at least 20% of the lot area, only one third of the total area of the Farm can receive buildings. The rest of the territory can be used for activities such as sustainable food production and clean energy generation. The minimum utilization coefficient must be equal to 1 (constructed area equal to the land area). If the initial occupation of a block is not carried out with the maximum utilization coefficient (2 times the land area), it must be done in such a way as to allow construction to be completed in order to reach this coefficient in the future. The use of the maximum utilization coefficient will result in smaller projection areas of the buildings and, consequently, a low waterproofing index.
The occupation of the 59 hectares available for construction at Fazenda Argentina should happen gradually, in three phases. In the first, scheduled for until 2035 (12 years), only 23 hectares will be occupied, with buildings in the blocks closest to the Inova Unicamp headquarters and the area in front of CPQD, since road infrastructure already exists in these two portions of the territory. Furthermore, CPQD is also an important research institution, which can help to leverage collaborative projects. The entire remaining area should only receive buildings in the following two phases.
In 2019, Unicamp made a courageous decision to create a Integrated Master Plan, with a vision of the University's future, expressed in guidelines for the territorial occupation of its campuses until 2031. The planning for the occupation of HIDS Unicamp is aligned with these premises and hopes to strengthen them to encourage a new paradigm of occupation, without foregoing the previous experiences.
The Zeferino Vaz campus currently has 600 thousand square meters built. When looking at an aerial photograph of our campus today, it is clear that the space is completely occupied by a road system. However, the blocks still have many idle areas, with large distances between buildings. On days of intense sun or heavy rain, it becomes difficult to move between institutes, and those who can end up choosing to travel by car, even for short distances, avoiding walking or using other types of active mobility.
The occupation of HIDS Unicamp is an opportunity to review this paradigm and apply a more rational occupation plan, which recognizes that urban land is a scarce resource, which must be used in the best possible way, allowing the preservation of more green area and reducing infrastructure costs. No less important is the fact that densification contributes to the promotion of meetings and coexistence, which in turn contribute to the generation of knowledge, by bringing people together, providing a richer community life.
By reducing distances, densification also enables more sustainable mobility. In this sense, the HIDS Unicamp occupation plan contemplates the creation of a road network of different dimensions, with collector and arterial roads, shared streets and buffer strips around ecological corridors and APPs. The shared streets will be local access roads, with controlled vehicular traffic and a speed limit of 30km/h. Its paving must be permeable and with a different color and texture than the pavement of collector and arterial roads. The road system also plans to create green paths crossing the blocks and other areas of public enjoyment. The idea is to create stimuli for active mobility, for example, using bicycles, electric scooters or walking in a pleasant environment.
A new University for new times
HIDS Unicamp buildings must meet international sustainability certifications. In general, this model represents an extra cost that we choose to assume to meet the requirements of a more sustainable occupation. Among the established guidelines are thermal, acoustic and lighting comfort using passive technologies; efficiency in the use of water and energy; rainwater capture and reuse; adoption of energy from renewable sources; afforestation; waste minimization; use of local materials; accessibility and enhancement of the local landscape.
Finally, we hope, through this project, to also establish a new model for the use and occupation of spaces, in order to encourage and enable the development of interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research and activities. Therefore, we consider that the transfer of space will not be permanent to a specific institute or faculty; it must be renewed periodically, based on adherence to HIDS Unicamp values and project results. The aim is to establish a conscious, rational, shared and parsimonious use of space, without idleness or waste, and with minimal negative environmental impact, so that there is constructive and energetic efficiency and sustainability, greater collaboration between projects and sharing of infrastructure (exploitation of possible synergies), so that there is provision for openness, transparency and permeability to the surrounding area and society in general (for example, through exhibition areas and reception of visiting groups, etc.).
In the 1960s, in a pioneering way, Zeferino Vaz imagined a university open to enjoyment and meetings. The location of the buildings in a circle around a large green area would serve to encourage integration between knowledge and people. The celebrations of Unicamp's 57th anniversary should inspire the same boldness as Zeferino, the boldness to imagine and plan the University we want in 2050, within the new concepts of sustainable urbanism.
