Ten years ago, ArchDaily Brasil launched the inaugural edition of the Obra do Ano Award. Over the past decade, hundreds of architectural projects have been recognized as the best in the Portuguese-speaking world, thanks to the collective intelligence of ArchDaily Brasil's readers.

Today marks the start of the 2026 Obra do Ano Award, and once again we are counting on the ArchDaily Brasil community to select the best built projects in the Portuguese-speaking world. Over the next three weeks, you will be responsible for choosing the 15 finalists and 3 winners of this edition.

All projects published during 2025 from the following countries are eligible: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In this first phase, readers can nominate one project per day to advance to the finalist stage, which will be announced on April 8.

Marcelo Rosenbaum speaks with vivacity and excitement, reflecting his undeniable passion for what he does. His approach to architecture is marked by a proactive stance, leading him to travel to the most remote interiors of Brazil, often voluntarily. There, he listens carefully to local demands and seeks to develop projects that go beyond simple buildings, becoming instruments of transformation for the local reality. One of his best-known projects is in Tocantins, the Children's Village on the Canuanã Farm, done in partnership with the Aleph Zero office, which has been recognized worldwide and won awards. On June 20, he closed the program of the AsBEA 2024 National Convention, whose theme was "Sustainable Roots," held in Florianópolis, Brazil. We had the chance to talk to him about his professional career and some of his recent work.

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It was a city of untamed rivers: they seasonally burst their banks, shaping fertile, humid floodplains. When the waters receded, the ground became firm enough for a ball to roll and feet to run after it. It was in a São Paulo without rivers buried under sad slabs of concrete that futebol de várzea—floodplain football—emerged.

Tracing the history of várzea football in São Paulo means understanding how the city was built around imposing rivers like the Tietê. In the early 20th century, immigrant populations, Afro-Brazilians, and recently freed Black people occupied these territories, giving rise to neighborhoods like Barra Funda in the city's west zone. Far more than an amateur sport, it became established as a symbol of social organization and the struggle for the right to the city, at a time when space in the capital was beginning to be contested and feel the pressures of gentrification.