The air humidity is famous, reaching mercilessly low levels for anyone who has never visited a desert. Trees with twisted trunks, thick bark, and fuzzy leaves rise from the soil, attempting to defy gravity, but they contort in such a way that it is as if the heat were pushing them back toward the ground. The red earth is omnipresent, adding a touch of drama to every corner, as if the searing temperature whipped the land until it bled. Here in the *cerrado*, there is none of the density of a damp, dark jungle—like some menacing forest out of a Jack London novel, or an immemorial witness in a trance, as seen in a Joseph Conrad novella. 

Sheet metal is characterized by an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, meaning it performs exceptionally well under heavy loads despite being lightweight and slender. Because of this, bookshelves made from sheet metal offer impressive storage capacity and have become increasingly popular in apartment design.

+ 13

A faucet is a mechanical valve used to regulate (release or block) the flow of a fluid (usually water) from plumbing. While turning on a faucet seems almost mundane today, we rarely think about the vast knowledge and technology required to provide water at any given moment with a simple movement of the hand. Yet, between intake, treatment, and distribution to a kitchen or bathroom, water travels a complex path.

We must build the city through housing to address the country's housing deficit. Above all, we need not just “houses” but compact housing developments equipped with infrastructure, services, public facilities, and public spaces, featuring highly diverse housing typologies to accommodate a wide variety of family arrangements. The current incentives driving urban land speculation must be redirected through an Urban Reform.

In recent years, metal roofing has increasingly gained ground in architectural projects, from the industrial to the residential scale, especially when there is a need to lighten structural loads or span large distances. In residential architecture, this solution offers a viable alternative to traditional ceramic tiles due to its low cost, rapid installation, and the wide variety of types and models available on the market.

+ 12

Certain acclaimed architectural works are recognized by details or specific elements designed with such care and inventiveness that they become the immediate reference that comes to mind when we think of these projects.

One such element that frequently takes center stage is the staircase. This is evident in classics like Lina Bo Bardi's Solar do Unhão, featuring a singular wooden staircase that organizes the entire open space and defines the scale of the structure, or the iconic helical staircase of the Itamaraty Palace, designed by Oscar Niemeyer with the precise curves that characterize his work.

+ 11

Renovations of Brazilian modernist buildings prompt a necessary debate on how to preserve and what best practices to employ when intervening in architectural heritage. The challenges of this type of intervention are immense. These projects must be approached with great care to maintain respect for their historical significance, preserving key elements of their composition while simultaneously updating the building to meet contemporary and client demands.

Videos

Cities are on the front lines of the fight against Covid-19. This pandemic has manifested as a global crisis, and the decisions made at this delicate moment by governments, policymakers, decision-makers, and the public will have profound consequences for the future. Countless contexts are already undergoing changes that alter—if only temporarily—human behavior. Social distancing measures, lockdowns, health protocols, and restrictions on urban mobility are major drivers in shaping new urban realities.

The Cruel Pedagogy of the Virus – The pandemic has a tragic power of revelation. It exposes a series of paradoxes that were previously obscured or underestimated. In this sense, like any moment of crisis, it carries an educational dimension. Undoubtedly, given so many deaths—many of them preventable—this is a "cruel pedagogy of the virus," in the words of Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Amidst the suffering, debates and proposals have proliferated through livestreams, articles, reports, petitions, research papers, action agendas, guides, denunciations, solidarity networks, and even self-governance initiatives in semi-abandoned peripheries. These discussions focus particularly on the Brazilian tragedy, which combines multiple crises tied to structural issues (such as inequality and racism) with a mounting crisis of reason—or simple common sense—shaping a macabre landscape of social regression, hatred, obscurantism, and genocide.

In 2013, the film *Her*, in which the protagonist falls in love with an operating system, sought to depict a not-so-distant future of a relatively dystopian reality. Although the city depicted was likely a futuristic Los Angeles, the filming actually took place in Shanghai. After visiting the city, I believe this was a wise decision, given the pervasive atmosphere that constantly evokes this very theme. I remember standing on a massive circular pedestrian overpass above the Mingzhu roundabout, which connects major avenues in the heart of Pudong, Shanghai's current financial district. Ahead of me, I saw the bizarre Oriental Pearl Tower, a 467-meter-tall TV tower built by a Chinese state-owned enterprise in 1994. Looking back and up at the Shanghai Tower—the second-tallest building on the planet at an impressive 632 meters—the impact was even greater. This is Shanghai's image to the world, the showcase of a new China, breaking paradigms and reaching for the sky.

+ 4

Universities are environments defined by the intrinsic relationship between teaching, research, and outreach. As multidisciplinary institutions responsible for cultivating and disseminating knowledge, the various facilities that make up a university not only translate (directly or indirectly) the principles of education, research, and outreach into physical space, but also serve as the stage for the multifaceted dynamics and activities that shape campus life.

+ 22

Is architecture the thinking of spaces? Is it science and art applied to places? What if someone said that architecture is designing time?

+ 9

Despite UNESCO's recognition of specific world heritage sites, some are in constant danger of disappearing due to natural phenomena like earthquakes and human factors such as urbanization. By definition, these landmarks are significant to human history, embodying characteristics that reflect the core values of various civilizations. However, many have never been experienced firsthand by a large portion of the global population.

Videos

The way you experience the city, the urban infrastructure provided in the areas you frequent, and even the job opportunities that come your way are all, to some extent, shaped by the color of your skin. These themes unfold across multiple layers to discuss racial segregation in the urban environment in the seminar "The City and Racial Subjection," organized in 2018 by the Laboratory of Race and Urban Space Studies (Labraça) at FAUUSP.

As it celebrates its 60th anniversary, Brasília has an opportunity to draw inspiration from the anti-racist and anti-colonial movements worldwide that have challenged the monumentality of official history, confronting the memorialization of colonialism within its own urban landscape. Rather than celebratory events that reiterate official narratives, marking the city as a *bandeirante* milestone of national modernity, we should pause—a pause moreover imposed by the pandemic—to reflect on how certain memories are eternalized while others are erased, and thus trace new memorial cartographies onto the urban fabric of the capital.

+ 10

+ 37

During the pandemic, major cities became some of the most vulnerable environments; moreover, the global health crisis validated remote work and called into question the necessity of living in dense urban centers. Consequently, the urban exodus is likely to remain a constant theme in the near future, sparking major discussions within the fields of architecture and urban planning on how to manage this shift.

Twenty-first-century urbanism will be marked by an increase in both the number and scale of global megacities—urban agglomerations with over 10 million inhabitants, according to the UN—alongside a geographical shift. By 2100, African metropolises such as Lagos (Nigeria) and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) are projected to exceed 80 million residents. The rise of these new, larger metropolises, especially in Africa and Asia, compounded by the urgent need to address the ongoing climate crisis, demands immediate changes in the discourse surrounding urban mobility.

The public transit system in large Brazilian cities was already in crisis long before the coronavirus pandemic. Transit operators have seen passenger demand steadily decline over recent decades, driven by a combination of factors: urban policies that incentivize private vehicle use; urban sprawl, which dilutes economies of scale when serving peripheral areas; rising congestion; transit routes increasingly disconnected from actual urban mobility patterns; a growing need for transfers along passenger routes; deteriorating fleets and service quality; rising incomes leading to alternative choices like private cars, motorcycles, and ride-hailing services; and, above all, steadily rising fares.

While the architecture and construction industry has been advancing in new fields for years, it remains one of the most lagging in terms of automation and efficiency. And indeed, while many of these innovations never progress past the experimental stage, we face a sobering reality: the sector is one of the largest producers of pollutants and waste worldwide. How can we reverse this trend?

One of the most iconic selection tools for architecture and urban planning projects in Brazil is the design competition. Firmly established in the country's architectural culture, they provide, on the one hand, an environment of stimulation, opportunity, and revitalization for both practice and the debate of ideas—an important condition for reaffirming a democratic and horizontal approach to choosing winning proposals. On the other hand, they are the subject of heated debate due to how they have evolved, their evaluation methods, and, above all, because they frequently award proposals that reiterate a certain type of architecture linked to a modern formal vocabulary, neglecting proposals that seek some form of renewal of this formal imagery.

+ 9

Today, August 8, marks World Pedestrian Day. The date is famous for the iconic photo of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road in 1969. It is now 2020—more than fifty years later—and we still face immense challenges as pedestrians in our cities. How many times have you faced the hazard of crossing the street? Or had to navigate narrow, poorly lit sidewalks?

Movable doors, windows, and panels operate through various mechanisms that determine not only how they open and close, but also their classification and terminology. Among the array of systems used for operable architectural elements—ranging from the simplest to the most ingenious—the mechanism found in folding or bifold doors and windows is frequently adopted to blend aesthetics and functionality.

+ 23

Concrete is a key symbol of a highly celebrated era in Brazilian architecture. To this day, it remains one of the preferred materials for architects and designers seeking to explore the flexibility and expressiveness it brings to their work. Although primarily associated with building structures, concrete can also take center stage due to its materiality, thermal feel, color, and other qualities that transcend its structural role. When left exposed, concrete imparts a striking character to interiors, establishing a dialogue with the other elements that shape the space.

+ 18

The interfaces establishing the relationship between inside and outside in architectural design play a fundamental role in reinforcing or denying the potential degrees of this connection. To this end, a central factor in facade design is the opacity of its materials, which can create vastly different conditions regarding light, views, and atmospheric quality within a space. Translucent materials and elements offer a compelling strategy for mediating between interior and exterior. They evoke a diaphanous, ethereal effect, introducing a touch of mystery through surfaces that allow light to filter through while obscuring any sharp, distinct images for the observer.

+ 6