X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS Tatuí – A Racetrack to Help the People

X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS Tatuí, by Eduardo Terra, located near two highways– Castelo Branco (SP 280) and Raposo Tavares (SP-270) — Brazil. For the last four years, Eduardo Terra has been hard at work performing feasibility studies and sports market analysis in order to build a racetrack that will encompass more than 1-million-square-meters (1,000,000 m²) outside the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in the municipality of Tatuí. The project, both large in size and cost, also has a chance to have a large impact on the communities that surround it based on the number of businesses that it will include and the number of jobs it will provide. In addition to the racetrack, the X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS facility will also include condominiums, an exhibition center, a village mall, a hotel, a hospital, a technological center and even a heliport. But the racetrack will definitely take center stage.

X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS

The racetrack will be home to 20 boxes in the pit lane line and 12 stores with 355 square meters of outdoor shopping in the paddock with an additional 32 stores on the ground floor of the pavilion stands. There will be 60 additional boxes, each with two private bathrooms equipped with showers; a kitchen area and a mezzanine for private events as well as two private parking spaces. Designers ensured there would be ample parking by allotting 6,000 parking spaces for cars and 1,000 spaces for motorcycles.

A Race Track With 11 Different Options

To ensure that race fans don’t get bored, the team at Eduardo Terra designed a track with 11 different options and a change of direction at the start. The track is 16 meters wide, with a total length of 5,640 meters. It contains 16 curves, with six to the right and 10 to the left.

How Does This Project Benefit The Locals?

It is this focus on the racetrack that led the other enterprises to sign on to the project. Through their participation, the project is expected to create 400 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect, which will have a huge impact on the local economy. Local citizens will also benefit, as X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS plans on distributing a ticket to every public education student for any event that is held at the track. Another long lasting effect the project hopes to have is the educational aspect it brings to the area.

An Investment in The Future

The on-site technological center will also serve as an educational center where future mechanics, pilots, and trainers will receive valuable instruction that will one day enable them to get well-paying jobs in the industry. Finally, the project hopes to garner international attention by hosting national races that are already established in Brazil, including the Brazilian Motorcycling Federation motorcycling championships in Brazil: Moto GP 1000 – Brazilian Championship motorcycling; Superbike Series; and the Brazilian Championship Supermoto, Motocross, Cross Country Rally, Enduro Regular and Enduro FIM.

Greening up the Space and Connecting it to the Surroundings

Thus far, it might sound as if the project is going to be a concrete jungle filled with bright lights, cars and speeding motorcycles, but that would be a very incorrect assessment. In fact, the designers have incorporated as much green space as the site would allow for and took advantage of the breathtaking views of the surrounding Mantiqueira Mountain range. They installed groves of lush palm trees and other native trees found in Brazil to shade pedestrians on the ample sidewalks found throughout the development.

Design Considerations

By using mostly low-lying buildings, the designers were able to flood the entire project with natural light, which is necessary for the tropical plantings incorporated throughout. The project also keeps a low profile that doesn’t interfere too much with the surrounding farmland. Designers also took into account the noise that would be generated from the races and situated the development far enough from the congestion of the city to ensure that it would not become an issue. But what does all of this have to do with landscape architecture? Quite simply it’s the socio-economic impacts that the project will bring to this region. As stated above, not only will the project provide much-needed jobs in a Brazilian economy suffering from growing unemployment but it will also provide much needed advanced education for the people and much-needed tourism money that the local economy can then filter back to it’s people.

Right now everyone reading this is probably rolling their eyes and questioning my legitimacy as a writer, but hear me out. I get it — it can be hard to look at a project like this and see the good. After all, in the end, it’s just another development that at first glance would seem to be destroying the land. But, as landscape architects, it’s important to remember that our jobs are to ultimately improve the land for the people who live and work on it. And if a project can improve the lives of the people by building on the land, then ultimately, it should be deemed as a success story. We mustn’t forget that sometimes the welfare we are tasked with protecting isn’t always the welfare of the land, but instead, the welfare of the people. And if this racetrack can improve the lives of the people of Tatuí, then I would deem it a success. Can you think of other projects that at first glance seem to be detrimental but also offer some deeper good? WATCH: X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS – SHORT MOVIE

Full Project Credits For X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS

Project: X-TRACK MOTORSPORTS Location: Tatuí, near two highways– Castelo Branco (SP 280) and Raposo Tavares (SP-270) — Brazil Architect: Eduardo Terra Project Managers: Eduardo Terra and Arnaldo Yansen Cost: R$171.512.079,10 Size of Racetrack: 1.085.814,82 m2 Website: www.eduterra.com.br Recommended Reading:

• Urban Design  by Alex Krieger
• The Urban Design Handbook: Techniques and Working Methods (Second Edition) by Urban Design Associates

Article by Erin Tharp Return to Homepage

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