The university campus as a public space open to the city

When we understand architecture as the activity of modifying a natural site and transforming it into an environment suitable for human coexistence—whether through a building or the urbanization of a territory—we can understand the architect's work as something that must serve the community. In this sense, the historical concept of humanism and republicanism is invoked—the public affair, in Latin.

For architecture to be recognized as the primary art/technique in Greco-Roman culture, it was necessary to naturalize the notion that society and culture are also shaped by human relationships in space. In other words, good architecture could benefit people. For example, the construction of the Athenian Agora, a place for meetings and exchanges, prefigured today's plazas and public spaces of coexistence—much like what occurs in the iconic free span of the MASP in the city of São Paulo.

Similarly, the invention of the *loggia*—a veranda-like gallery structure—holds singular importance by offering protection from the elements in public environments, while also serving as a transition zone between public and private realms in buildings since the Italian Renaissance. Open, free spaces, such as landscaped public parks, are also embraced by architectural culture and hold special meaning for people. Therefore, human relations are shaped and transformed by architectural space—not solely because of it, of course, but significantly through it. The environmental configuration of the *loggia*, for instance, allowed for the emergence of spaces dedicated to buying and selling: covered markets, which remain fundamental to traditional commercial vernacular to this day.