Doing it together: urban collaboration in Brazil

WeMakeTheCity and DutchCulture present Doing it together: urban collaboration in Brazil at Pakhuis de Zwijger. ‘The Liveable City’ is the overall theme for Dutch cooperative efforts with Brazil and Brazilian architects Washington Fajardo and Laura Sobral will elaborate on how active citizenship, culture and heritage in Brazil can reconnect citizens to the public spaces of cities.

In Brazilian cities recently not only city governments and academia, but also local collectives and organizations started contributing to give life (again) to public spaces, often through cultural mediation. For decades public spaces in metropolises like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have been neglected and were not considered attractive. What can we learn from urban collaboration in Brazil?

Washington Fajardo is an architect and urban planner focused on creating people-oriented design that maximize urban vitality. As president of the Rio World Heritage Institute and the Mayor’s Special Advisor for Urban Issues, he created policies and finance solutions to preserve heritage, regenerate buildings and places, and improve public services in Rio de Janeiro.

Laura Sobral is an urbanist and architect committed to building fair, innovative, democratic, safe, healthy and vibrant cities. With the institute A Cidade Precisa de Você, she has been researching and organizing urban interventions and temporary architecture projects in public spaces with the intent of fostering active citizenship by linking culture and city.

After the presentations, the speakers enter into dialogue with each other and the public. Nanna Stolze, deputy consul-general São Paulo and head cultural affairs, highlights opportunities for the cultural cooperation between Brazil and the Netherlands.

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