My decision to study architecture was a naive one, made after having taken several vocational tests I found on Google. When I found out it was one of the toughest courses in Brazilian public universities, I thought about giving up. But I was already hooked by the history of architecture and its social role.
However, nothing is perfect. Architecture and Urban Planning is one of the most elite courses in the most renowned Brazilian universities, something that is reflected outside of the classroom as well. The architects went on to serve the rich, casting aside the needs of the cities and the poor.
For Elizabeth France, architect who coordinated the Environmental Sanitation Program of the Guarapiranga Basin for seven years and was Superintendent of the Municipal Housing in São Paulo between 2005 and 2012, said this trend is changing:
There are people without access to even the most fundamental of conditions and rights, such as basic sanitation, and architecture seeks to resolve it. Another issue that is discussed in architecture is the question of immigration. Demanding rapid solutions to housing and the expansion of cities.
