LabCidade at FAUUSP has conducted several studies on methods for mapping COVID-19 across São Paulo.

The rethinking of public and private spaces has been considered by numerous architects and urban planners for the post-pandemic era. The gradual reopening of businesses and the resumption of other activities across the country require owners, employees, users, and customers to change habits and behaviors to ensure everyone's health.

Six commercial spaces frequently used by many people — gyms, beauty salons, offices, corporate offices, reception areas, and classrooms — have received guidelines for proper operation, developed by architects and urban planners Maria Paula Dunel and Ingrid Joyce Almeida de Jesus.

Urban precariousness, social vulnerability, racial exclusion, health crisis, environmental catastrophe, genocidal state. Growing dissatisfaction on the streets, falsification of pandemic data, economic recession. What social and political pacts will be possible to reshape democracy in a shattered country? Guilherme Wisnik speaks with Tainá de Paula, architect and urbanist, urban struggle activist, who holds a master's degree in Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, the international “Coronavirus Design Competition,” organized by the platform Go Architect, encourages students and professionals from various fields to think about how to develop products, objects, and equipment that help the population remain physically and mentally healthy in a scenario of so much uncertainty. Brazilian architect Leonardo Dias is competing, alongside more than 100 candidates from around the world, with a proposal for an urban totem that promotes hand sanitization, citizen information, and the humanization of data.

The New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) gained worldwide attention in 2002 with the Blur Building, designed for that year's Swiss Expo. The volume was formed by 35,000 high-pressure nozzles that sprayed water from the lake below, creating a massive artificial cloud. Its shape, boundaries, colors, and translucency shifted with the sun and wind, offering visitors an immersive experience as they entered a fully permeable volume. Ten years later, Carla Juaçaba and Bia Lessa designed Humanidade2012 for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference, where several programmatic volumes were arranged within a massive scaffolding structure. With more voids than solids, its edges dematerialized into the sky, and at night the volumes appeared to float. According to the architects, “the very movement of people through the building turned visitors into exhibits when seen from afar.” Despite differences in scale and context, both temporary projects succeed in working with notions of translucency, lightness, the dissolution of boundaries, and movement.

The Brazilian city is at the center of current debates on quality of life and social justice, driven by the widespread pandemic crisis affecting our urban centers. Not in a long time have both the relevance of urban planning and the value of quality housing design taken center stage as they do today, extending far beyond the social and technical circles where architects operate. It is as if we had forgotten that we are responsible for the cities we inhabit, and that neglect is also a form of design. Now, reality is taking its toll. 

On June 18, the fifth anniversary of the publication of Laudato Si’ – Pope Francis’s encyclical calling for global unity in combating climate change – the Vatican published new guidelines containing more than 200 recommendations for environmental protection.

The document, titled “Journeying Towards Care for Our Common Home: Five Years After Laudato Si’,” suggests practical measures to curb global warming and issues stark warnings about the dangers of environmental degradation. It calls on the world to decarbonize the energy and economic sectors, making renewable energy accessible to all, and advocates for fossil fuel subsidy reform and CO2 emission taxation. 

The postgraduate program at Escola da Cidade — Geography, City, and Architecture — welcomed David Barragán for a series of lectures. During his visit, we interviewed the partner of Al Borde, an award-winning practice recognized by the 100+ Best Architecture Firms 2019, Panorama Iberoamericano de Obras, XI BIAU Asunción, and Best Feature Documentary at the 5th CINETEKTON, among others. 

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In interior design projects, we often encounter certain pieces of furniture that are easily recognized as milestones of a specific era, place, culture, or the career of the designer who created them.

What makes an object or piece of furniture iconic—whether within the design world or beyond—is not determined by a set of rigid rules. Asking what elevates a design to “icon” status leads to deeper questions: Is it its instant recognizability, its ability to break canons, or its timelessness? Furthermore, who are the arbiters who define this iconicity?

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Originally written as a final paper for the elective course Traditional Dwellings (Moradias Tradicionais) at Escola da Cidade in 2017, this essay addresses the little-known presence of large-scale pre-Columbian structures in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest.

Over the last 40 years, hundreds of massive geometric formations carved into the ground—known as geoglyphs—have been discovered in the state of Acre. These structures show that the Amazon was inhabited thousands of years ago and that its vegetation was managed, debunking the notion of the region as an untouched, pristine wilderness.

Vertical gardens, green walls, or living walls are different terms used for the same solution: the vertical arrangement of various plant species to enjoy the benefits of vegetation within a smaller footprint. In other words, the vertical application of plants maximizes horizontal usable area, a distinct advantage especially in places with limited ground space for planting.

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Architectural photographer Guilherme Pucci shared with us a series of images of the Ascension of the Lord Church at the Bahia Administrative Center, designed by João Filgueiras Lima, known as Lelé. Completed in 1975, this classic of Brazilian architecture reveals Lelé's design sensitivity, visible in how the building integrates with the site's topography, the quality of the materials used—concrete, glass, wood, and stone—and the tension created by light and shadow within the church.

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The Eiffel Tower, designed and built for the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, celebrated new industrial methods and materials, alongside the innovation of high-rise construction. Although only one platform was completed in time for the exposition, the tower already offered visitors an aerial view of the city. This was particularly compelling at a time when the recent Reforms of Paris (1853–1975) by Baron Haussmann, with his rational, innovative, and controversial urban plan, were being celebrated.

Architecture is a discipline deeply connected to the perception and construction of space, and could be introduced in early childhood education. With this in mind, the architects at Studio dLux proposed the Bird House project, a workshop for elementary school children designed to introduce the design and construction processes of a birdhouse.

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The development of digital interfaces, combined with the daily bombardment of advertising images, increases the demand for clarity—a clarity we tend to take for granted. This is what Baudrillard called the "world of hypervisibility." Art, however, can offer a slowing down of perception, pointing us to deeper dimensions of experience where speed becomes delay.

Guilherme Wisnik talks with Michael Wesely, a German art photographer best known for his photos of cities, buildings, and landscapes taken with a special ultra-long exposure technique. From 1986 to 1988, Michael Wesely attended the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich before studying at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

Prete-Indígena is a directory designed to map and promote Black and Indigenous people working in the fields of design, architecture, and web development, created by Fabiano Procópio and Gabriel Biselli. It arises from the question of where Black professionals are active, not only in research but also in the practice of these fields.

Designing residential projects constantly involves finding ways to enhance the daily lives of those who will occupy these spaces every day. The desire to radically subvert the housing program is bounded precisely by the realities of everyday life—domestic activities, practical dynamics, and the long-term presence of the residents. Consequently, innovation and creativity in these cases are usually manifested in details, spatial transitions, points of interest, furniture, and thoughtful approaches to interior design that are both pleasant and tailored to the inhabitants.

One way to create elements of surprise and break the monotony of standard residential layouts is the strategic, selective use of color in interior spaces. Pairing architectural elements such as beams, columns, floors, fireplaces, panels, and cabinetry with contrasting tones offers a fresh take on familiar components, innovatively transforming the perception of interior environments. Below, we have curated a selection of Brazilian projects that explore this approach in their interior designs.

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Unlike various construction systems and materials, the landscape is not something that can be specified, or even drawn, in the architectural design of an apartment. However, landscapes are still shaped by the building's design decisions, both from an internal and external perspective—that is, in relation to their surroundings. Facade orientation and window size, for instance, are among the ways the views from an apartment are defined, while the scale and height of the building directly impact the context in which it is situated.

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As part of their partnership in art-education and cultural mediation exchanges, the Tomie Ohtake Institute and the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo have launched the digital publication Our Home Is Where We Are. The project is supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Brasília.

Just over four months after the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Brazil, and about three and a half months after the initial quarantine decrees, many cities still maintain restrictive measures to promote social isolation. Despite the recent easing of restrictions adopted by some states and municipalities, disruptions to the daily routines of architects and students persist, and the popularity of remote activities, such as online courses, has grown over the past few months.

While many architecture firms face reduced demand and stalled construction sites, students have seen their classes suspended or moved online. With more free time—whether due to shorter commutes or reduced workloads—students and architects have turned to online courses to sharpen or expand their skills in tools, software, and theoretical concepts.

Videos

The search for more sustainable products must begin at the design stage. In this light, it is essential for designers and everyone involved in this process to possess adequate knowledge; indeed, sustainable practices must be an integral part of the education of architects and urban planners. 

Over the years, many architecture programs have increasingly integrated this discussion into their curricula in a more meaningful and in-depth manner, either through specific elective courses or within mandatory subjects. 

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The appearance and long-term maintenance of a work of architecture or interior design are heavily dictated by its materiality and the products used. If the selection of materials and products is not precise, the project can be compromised both aesthetically and functionally. 

This is why specification is essential to achieving the desired result, and the professionals responsible for this stage must have a broad knowledge of the materials and products available in their region. But is material specification done similarly across all architecture firms? Do the initial and final stages of the project receive the same attention? How close is the relationship between architects and materials, really?

Videos

One of the most engaging ways to learn about cities is through movies and series. Below, Anthony Ling from the platform Caos Planejado shares six recommendations for online series to learn about Brazilian communities, Soviet cities, and other corners of the world.

In high school math, we learn that average speed is calculated as the ratio of distance traveled to time elapsed. For decades, the thinking behind transportation policies was anchored in this equation: it was believed that the goal was to increase system efficiency, which simply required reducing travel times by increasing average speed. Consequently, the distance variable was deemed less important, since building unimpeded transit systems—such as subway lines, BRT corridors, or expressways—could maintain or reduce travel times over increasingly longer distances.