Romullo Baratto is an architect with a PhD from FAUUSP and Managing Editor of ArchDaily. He previously coordinated the editorial team of the 11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial and served as Managing Editor of ArchDaily Brasil, where he led the platform to win the FNA Award—the first time the honor was granted to a media outlet. He collaborated on the editing of the book "Concrete Jungle", published by gestalten, and has curated architecture exhibitions in Brazil, Chile, Denmark, and Italy, as well as delivered lectures and moderated debates in Spain, the United States, and Portugal. His doctoral thesis investigates the urban landscapes of São Paulo through cinema. His work spans academic research and editorial practice, communicating architecture through texts, interviews, lectures, curatorship, and photography. Follow him on Instagram @romullobf.
Last Thursday, Iphan—the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage—announced the third public competition for permanent positions in the institution's history. Authorized by the Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management, the competition will fill 411 permanent positions nationwide: 104 for Analyst I, 176 for Technician I, and 131 for Institutional Assistant I.
Esquina, a blog by journalist Mariana Barros hosted on the Estadão portal, has launched the special series #EsquinaNaUrna to present presidential candidates with the primary demands for improving Brazilian cities. You can submit your question to Esquina, and the blog will select a group of questions to be answered by the leading candidates in the polls.
The Instituto Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel Architecture Prize has announced the selected projects for its 2018 edition. In its fifth year, this is the first time the prize has selected 13 finalist projects, rather than 10 as in previous editions.
The Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Brazil (CAU/BR) has sent an open letter to the president of the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan), historian Kátia Bogéa, demanding the professional minimum wage for architects selected through the national competition launched last week.
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Discussing public space and urbanism with children in a playful way: this is the premise of the book Casacadabra – Cidades para Brincar, which will be launched on November 11 at Sesc Avenida Paulista in São Paulo.
Written by Bianca Antunes and Simone Sayegh, with illustrations by Luísa Amoroso, this is the second title in the Casacadabra series. The first, titled Invenções para morar, introduced the architecture of ten houses around the world. The Casacadabra series is a pioneering initiative in Brazil, bringing specific architecture and urbanism content to children.
City Councilor Marielle Franco, who was shot and killed in Rio de Janeiro, had introduced a bill last December to establish a Technical Assistance program for Social Interest Housing in the city. “This is a historic demand of social movements and organizations linked to the field of architecture and urbanism, given the massive low-income population that needs designs and construction work to improve their housing conditions,” Marielle stated in the bill's justification. “It is also important to expand the number of examples of good design and construction practices in the city, contributing to the dissemination of these experiences.”
As part of the Brazilian contribution to the 2018 Venice Biennale, titled Walls of Air, Atelier Marko Brajovic presented the NSDC installation, which proposes redesigning city fences into street furniture, viewing the design process as a tool for transformation used to shape the urban landscape and its use.
The LIMPAR SANTANA project involves constructing a sustainable basic sanitation system to clean up the waterways of Quilombo de Santana, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, aiming to improve the quality of drinking water in local homes.
Based on an assessment of the area's topography, geotechnics, and geography, the proposal suggests using evapotranspiration basins—a system that treats effluent through natural filtration and evaporation via banana leaves—and biodigester tank systems that convert wastewater into a usable byproduct for agriculture.
The Docomomo SP recently published a free e-book featuring the contributions received during the fifth edition of its annual seminar, which took place in 2017. Spanning over a thousand pages, the publication compiles articles addressing modern heritage in São Paulo across three thematic areas: recognition, intervention, and management.
The City of São Paulo has opened a public selection process for professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, agronomy, and geology, offering a total of 118 positions in these areas, in addition to 50 openings for organizational development and planning analysts. The positions are for roles within municipal secretariats and other government agencies.
It no longer makes much sense to say that BIM technology is the future of architectural design; it is the present and will become increasingly widespread. However, professionals and students often note that the technology's complexity can make it user-unfriendly, particularly regarding parametric element families.
While there are websites that offer ready-made families, the vast majority focus on engineering and other building systems, leaving few options for architectural and interior design elements.
Encouraging and valuing those who work to preserve the country's cultural heritage is also one of the core missions of the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan). With this in mind, one of Iphan's main initiatives to recognize efforts to preserve Brazilian Cultural Heritage is the Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade Award, which is now open for applications. Established in 1987 to recognize actions to protect, preserve, and promote Brazilian Cultural Heritage, the award is now in its 31st edition and was named in honor of the institution's first director.
The city of Paraty, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, had its bid for World Heritage status accepted by UNESCO last week. While this is not the first time the city has been considered for the organization's list, having been nominated on two previous occasions, it is the first time it is running as a Natural and Cultural Landscape.
Working partners and friends for over four decades, Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura have won two Pritzker Prizes and a host of other awards, earning the admiration and respect of any architecture professional. In a conversation moderated by Isabel Lucas and published in the Portuguese newspaper Público.pt, the duo discusses the early days of this long partnership which, over time, has evolved into a close bond that allows them to sketch over each other's drawings in a process they refer to as "osmosis."
The 60th visit of the open course Arquitetura Paulistana, taught by architect Marco Artigas, took participants to the bar Pitico, a project designed in collaboration by Marina Portolano, Julia Masagão, Joana Barossi, Marcelo Dionísio, and Anna Ferrari.
The Belo Horizonte Municipal Secretariat of Culture has reopened the Pampulha Art Museum following a suspension of its projects, exhibitions, and the Bolsa Pampulha program. Since the 16th of this month, visitors can participate in the *Museu por Dentro* (Museum from Within) project, which offers a closer look at the museum's history, architecture, and collection, as well as its surrounding landscape.
The new initiative offers various activities, such as a guided tour of the building's interior and telescope viewing of the Pampulha Modern Ensemble, which includes the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Casa do Baile, the Yacht Tennis Club, the Kubitschek House, and the Art Museum itself.
A massive fire caused the collapse of a 22-story skyscraper in downtown São Paulo overnight. Located at the intersection of Avenida Rio Branco and Largo Paissandu, near Vale do Anhangabaú, the building previously served as the headquarters of the Federal Police and was occupied by about 90 families from a housing movement.
According to residents, the fire started around 1:30 a.m. following an explosion on the fifth floor and quickly spread throughout the structure, also affecting neighboring buildings, such as the Martin Luther Church located on the square and another high-rise facing the collapsed structure.
The open course Arquitetura Paulistana, organized by Marco Artigas, took students to visit the Congonhas Airport Pedestrian Bridge project, designed by Estúdio Artigas in partnership with the firm H2C Arquitetura. Begun in 2014, the project took four years to complete and featured the participation of Nitsche Arquitetos, who were responsible for the project's visual communication.
