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Gabriela de Matos stands out for her pioneering path. The only Black woman in her undergraduate architecture program, she founded the country's first research group on Afro-Brazilian architecture and gender – Arquitetas Negras. She is also the first Black woman to be elected vice president of the Institute of Architects of Brazil's São Paulo department, as well as the first to win the Architect of the Year award from IAB Rio de Janeiro in 2020. This year, she once again makes history as the first Black woman to participate in CasaCor São Paulo. Her debut could not be more auspicious: she has designed Espaço Agô, which welcomes visitors to the 34th edition of the exhibition, centered on the theme "the original house."

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The Museu do Pontal in Rio de Janeiro, an international reference for Brazilian folk art with over nine thousand works by 300 artists—the largest collection of its kind and recognized for its relevance by UNESCO—inaugurated its new headquarters in Barra da Tijuca on October 9, 2021. With this, the city gains a new and important art and culture facility. This inauguration is the result of a major collective collaboration involving over a thousand people and companies such as BNDES, Instituto Cultural Vale, and Itaú Cultural, among others, through the Federal Government's Culture Incentive Law. Furthermore, it was made possible through the special support of IBRAM (Brazilian Institute of Museums) and the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Cities around the globe have widely adopted the concept of adaptive reuse and the importance of investing in historic sites and bringing them into the present day. Instead of focusing on brand new, ground-up construction, many are seeing the value in repurposing structure for new programs. Old churches are becoming restaurants, factories are transformed into museums and apartments, and warehouses are designed to become iconic office spaces. But beyond individual buildings, some planners and preservationists are reimagining what it means to revitalize in a similar way, but at a city scale, and how we can determine the buildings that would benefit our neighborhoods if they are repurposed.

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It comes as no surprise that the land issue in Brazil is a highly complex topic. As Ermínia Maricato defines it, the “knot of land” lies at the center of various conflicts—whether regarding the productive occupation of rural lands or at the core of questions surrounding the right to the city, housing, and infrastructure in urban centers. Yet, what is rarely discussed in the fields of urban planning and public policy are the cause-and-effect relationships of this land conflict on the current management of public areas, particularly concerning the organization of municipal assets and, more importantly, its practical effects on city design and urban dynamics.

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