Working at the intersection of architectural and social projects, Grupo ][ Fresta was one of the practices recognized by the 2021 IAB Awards in the Urbanism, Planning, and Cities category. The highlighted project proposes a set of infrastructure alongside cultural and community facilities across 12 Guarani and Tupi villages, spread over 24,000 hectares of land south of the country's largest city.

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National School Day was celebrated yesterday, March 15, an important date to remember and value the role of educational institutions. Spaces that foster new perspectives, knowledge, exchanges, interaction, and play must be designed to rise to the challenge. While we have previously highlighted fifteen projects designed by Brazilian architects, today we take the opportunity to showcase some of the solutions and techniques adopted in recent years when approaching this program.

On Thursday (10), the São Paulo state government announced the project for Brazil's first long-distance highway bicycle path, the Ciclovia dos Bandeirantes, along the Bandeirantes Highway.

Located between São Paulo and Itupeva, the new bicycle path will connect the state capital to the newly launched Serra Azul Tourist District in Itupeva, spanning approximately 57 kilometers. 

If Zininho—author of the anthem of Santa Catarina’s capital—had turned his songwriting to Florianópolis's urban planning, he would certainly have reached the same conclusion: never has a poet had so much to sing about.

And with good reason: urban irregularity in Florianópolis is so widespread that reliable data on the subject only recently came to light. The city's own Director of Urban Planning estimated irregular occupations at 40% to 45% of the total. Only with the proposed Master Plan revision in late December 2021 did we learn that irregularity varies from 5.21% in the continental mainland to 81.84% in the Rio Vermelho district. Six of the thirteen districts have over 40% of their urban footprint in informal settlements, and only four remain under 20%.

In December 2021, a young woman born and raised in the Colombo favela arrived in Bogotá, Colombia. With a stamped passport, trembling hands, and a mix of fear and joy, she took her first steps into the unknown—embracing change and learning beyond familiar borders, and realizing her first study exchange, a dream that until recently had seemed far out of reach.

For about two months, this would be my home—a place once marked by violence, bloodshed, and insecurity, in what is still considered one of the most unequal countries in the world.

Streets are the foundational public spaces of cities and the ultimate hubs of convergence. Where streets meet, plazas, squares, and parks emerge. Everything flows through our streets, and their quality determines people's access to employment, education, healthcare, and leisure. Yet a brief look at major Brazilian cities reveals a clear prioritization of motorized vehicles over other modes of transport. In São Paulo, for instance, 41% of sidewalks do not meet the minimum width required by law.

Gender inequality in the practice of architecture is the result of a multifaceted process, within which the role of narratives woven daily by journalism remains understudied. Here, we present how two female architects were portrayed by Rio de Janeiro's daily press in the 1950s, aiming to examine how their professional image was constructed in a way that was inseparable from their personal lives.   

Today is World Water Day, established in 1992 by the United Nations (UN) to broaden discussions surrounding this resource. As drinking water becomes increasingly valuable, we present three architectural design alternatives to save and make better use of water in your home.

A small community of tiny homes has been built in Seattle, Washington, with the goal of helping homeless women transition back into stable shelter. What makes the project even more remarkable is that Whittier Heights Village was built entirely by female volunteers.

The site is tucked away between a bank parking lot and a four-story apartment complex in the Ballard neighborhood. The fenced-in lot features 16 tiny homes capable of temporarily sheltering up to 20 women at a time.

No País dos Arquitectos is a podcast created by Sara Nunes, who also runs the architectural film production company Building Pictures. The podcast aims to showcase the professionals, projects, and stories behind landmark contemporary Portuguese architecture. With just over 10 million inhabitants, Portugal is a fascinating country when it comes to this professional field, and its architectural output punches far above its population and territorial scale.

In this episode, Sara talks with architect António Cerejeira Fontes, from the firm Cerejeira Fontes Architects, about the Imaculada and Cheia de Graça Chapels in Braga, northern Portugal. Listen to the full interview and read an excerpt of the conversation below:

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For a long time, women have had their work excluded and erased in fields such as engineering, architecture, and design. There have always been inspiring women architects, planners, and urban policymakers, but worldwide, built environment professions—and particularly their upper echelons—remain heavily male-dominated, more so than other fields such as education or healthcare.

Inspiring women architects, planners, and urban policymakers have always existed, yet worldwide, the built environment professions—particularly their upper echelons—remain heavily male-dominated, far more so than other fields like education or healthcare.

Favela Marte, located in São José do Rio Preto, in upstate São Paulo, will be the first community in Latin America to be fully powered by solar panels. The site will serve as a model for a broad project that promises to generate income and social development for its residents. 

Known as Vila Itália, the community began to emerge in 2014. For several years, the residents were the target of lawsuits aimed at evicting them from the private land. A turning point came when the area was chosen to serve as a model for the “Favela 3D” project—standing for dignified, digital, and developed environments. 

The course Architecture and City in Brazil, taught by architect, curator, and professor Guilherme Wisnik, joins the online learning catalog of the Sesc Digital platform starting March 31. Entirely free and open, the self-paced, asynchronous course allows students to watch at their own pace.

This essay seeks to call upon the field of Architecture and Urbanism to reflect on the prison. When discussing urban crises, the existence of spaces of confinement is rarely problematized as a component—or even a generator—of the issues facing contemporary cities. Yet, this essay advances the premise that they are, in fact, central to them. 

The Novo Rio Pinheiros Program announced the results of actions taken by the São Paulo State Government to clean up the river since 2019. According to January data from the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Environment, there has been a significant improvement in oxygenation and a reduction in organic matter in the water. In June 2019, Governor João Doria promised to clean up the river by 2022.

In the film Aquarius, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, the character Clara, played by Sônia Braga, refuses to sell her apartment—located in a condominium building—to a real estate developer. Her neighbors, on the other hand, accept the deal. In an article for Estadão, economist Pedro Fernando Nery views the case through a lens opposite to the cinematic narrative: instead of a hero resisting unscrupulous real estate capital with no respect for Recife's coastal landscape, Clara is actually the villain.

Last week, we announced the 15 finalists for the 2022 Obra do Ano, an award celebrating the best of Portuguese-speaking architecture by inviting our readers to vote for their favorite projects built in Portuguese-speaking countries. The day has come to announce the winners of ODA 2022.

The 2022 Obra do Ano Award is presented by Dornbracht, an internationally renowned brand for kitchen and bathroom products.

No País dos Arquitectos is a podcast created by Sara Nunes, who also runs the architectural film production company Building Pictures. The podcast aims to profile the professionals, projects, and stories behind leading contemporary Portuguese architecture. With just over 10 million inhabitants, Portugal is a fascinating country when it comes to this professional field, and its architectural output far exceeds what its population or territorial scale might suggest.

In this episode, Sara talks with Marcio Kogan, Diana Radomysler, and Suzana Glogowski of Studio MK27 about the use of the muxarabi (wooden latticework) and the influences of Portuguese colonialism and Brazilian modernism on the firm's work. Listen to the full interview and read an excerpt of the conversation below:

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Thought you had already seen, read, and heard everything about the Week of '22? The Betoneira Podcast, however, approached the topic through a different lens: architecture. Guest Guilherme Wisnik explained how Oswald de Andrade's *antropofagia* underpinned Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer’s relationship with Le Corbusier in the design of the Capanema Palace, Brazil’s first public modernist building.

Europe's largest research center for urban food production has opened in West Flanders, Belgium. Named Agrotopia, the space is a giant greenhouse where innovative urban horticulture techniques will be applied. 

Vegetables and fruit trees are being planted across the 6,000-square-meter cultivation area. The space is divided into four climate zones, allowing for the cultivation of diverse species. 

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Even as 5G technology is about to launch in major cities, placing Brazil among a select group of countries with advanced technology installed, 35 million people still lack access to quality drinking water and 100 million do not even have sewage collected from their homes. Furthermore, a volume of sewage equivalent to 5,300 Olympic swimming pools is discharged into nature every day without any treatment in the country.

Residents of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium will receive up to €900 to deregister their vehicles. The initiative is part of "Bruxell’Air," a financial support program for those looking to adopt alternative modes of transportation.

We are still far from the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and avoiding the worst risks of climate change. However, this target remains within reach, according to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—and this hope must guide the political and economic decisions of this decade, according to WWF-Brazil.