For the first time, Escola da Cidade is broadcasting the architecture school's inaugural lecture, delivered by Oscar Niemeyer in 2002. In a lucid and conscious address to young students, Niemeyer emphasizes the social function of architecture and presents, through sketches and images, some of his key works, including the Pampulha architectural complex and Brasília.

The construction sector, particularly the building industry, is one of the largest consumers of natural resources and is responsible for significant environmental impacts and CO2 emissions, according to data from the United Nations Environment Programme. According to data from the organization C40 Cities, buildings are one of the primary sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in cities, meaning there is substantial room to reduce these emissions—with CO2 being the primary GHG. Data from the National Energy Balance (MME, 2019) indicates that residential, public, and commercial buildings in Brazil consumed over 40% of all electricity produced in the country in 2018. 

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The Institute of Architects of Brazil - São Paulo Department (IABsp) has made all 74 editions of Jornal Arquiteto available online. This prominent publication in the field of architecture and urbanism was edited by IABsp in partnership with the Union of Architects in the State of São Paulo (SASP) between 1972 and 1980. Distributed nationwide, the newspaper aimed to be a "spokesperson for all architects."

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Escola da Cidade is hosting a discussion between Cape Verdean architect Patrícia (Patti) Anahory and the editors of América magazine, Marianna Al Assal and Maira Rios. The event marks the launch of the second issue and addresses the construction of identities through the reading of urban landscapes, as well as the displacement and production of knowledge in the fields of architecture and urbanism between the Americas and Africa today.

Even before the new president of IPHAN was appointed in May 2020, guest professors Silvana Rubino and Alfredo Manevy spoke about the various challenges and contradictions guiding cultural policy in Brazil during a discussion at Escola da Cidade on June 5, 2019. Part of the course *Seminar on Contemporary Culture and Reality*, then coordinated by Professor José Guilherme Pereira Leite, the talk took the dissolution of the Ministry of Culture (MinC) as its starting point to discuss its repercussions, particularly in the fields of architecture and urbanism.

The city of São Paulo will test a pilot project that transforms streets and sidewalks normally reserved for parking spaces into outdoor areas for bars and restaurants. The initiative, named "Ocupa Rua" (Occupy the Street), is led by São Paulo City Hall, the architecture firm Metro Arquitetos Associados, and food critic Alexandra Forbes.

What is your idea of landscape? Landscape Architecture—a field of knowledge adjacent to architecture and urbanism—is often translated into Portuguese as landscaping (paisagismo), a term many resist because it fails to capture the discipline's true complexity. We suspect this discomfort stems from a common architectural tradition in Brazil that views the landscape as a purely designed, static entity.

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Architect Gian Carlo Gasperini passed away on the night of Wednesday, July 15, at the age of 93. He had been hospitalized for two days at Albert Einstein Hospital with pneumonia. Gasperini was responsible for several of São Paulo's landmark buildings, such as the Galeria Metrópole in the city center and the Pauliceia building on Paulista Avenue.

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. 

Postponed to July 2021, the 27th World Congress of Architects will host virtual debates as part of an open, collaborative platform to gather insights and proposals for addressing contemporary urban challenges.

The countdown to the event begins this week with the release of special content on the social media channels of UIA2021RIO. This includes video testimonials and interviews with speakers, collaborators, and partners discussing post-pandemic urban transformations and the role architects and urban planners should play in society.

Videos

The 4th {CURA} Award continues the practice of hosting ideas competitions on themes aligned with current discussions on architecture, the city, and society, focusing on contemporary Brazil. The institutionalization of authoritarian and denialist discourse has become a real threat. For this reason, the competition's theme—a Museum of Democracy—brings forward a necessary discussion on how we treat memory and our history.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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Architects and urban planners seeking new sources of income during this period can find job opportunities across various regions in Brazil. For example, the City, Housing, and Health competition, organized by CAU/RJ, will award R$ 10,000 to the two best ATHIS (Technical Assistance for Social Interest Housing) proposals addressing housing and health in the era of Covid-19. Meanwhile, the Healthy House – Healthy City competition, hosted by CAU/RS, challenges participants to propose architectural solutions under different themes and will distribute R$ 100,000 in prizes.

Arqguia Colorir is a digital coloring book that invites everyone to visually reinterpret the main architectural landmarks of Rio de Janeiro. Available for free download in both English and Portuguese, the drawings feature QR codes providing direct access to descriptions of each work on the online architecture guide ArqGuia Rio.

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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.

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.

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

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.

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Mixed-use buildings are those where diverse programs converge into a single project. Crucial for compact, dense cities, this architectural typology can help reduce daily urban commutes by integrating housing, workspaces, and occasionally leisure facilities into one structure.

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.