The Berimbau Academy of Capoeira located in Santa Fe, NM is an non-profit organization that is intended to bring Capoeira as a healing and recreational art to the community.  Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian Martial that formed during the atlantic slave trade.  This unique martial art includes dance, music, and acrobatics into a fluid combination of movements and sound.

Founder, Pete Jackson wanted to visualizes a larger Culture Arts Center of the Healing Arts called Bikanda (Family Circle).  The site we choose was a preexisting building in the rail-yard development in Santa Fe, NM.  This was a complex program that included a theater, message rooms, dance and music spaces, roof-top terrace, food service kitchen, and an art gallery all together.  sometimes sharing spaces.

Using preexisting structures is a dynamic and challenging practice but it can sometimes prove to be more costly that just building new.  Incentives for using a preexisting footprint are part of LEED certifications.