Open Letters Seminar

Saturdays, August 6, 13, 20 and 27, from 16h to 18h, at Pivô, Copan building

By proposing the use of this communication exercise between a group of professionals that think and act upon the city and the main representative of municipal authority, the exhibition Letters to the Mayor aims to place the city, with all its complex social-spatial networks, at the centre of the public debate. The time of the exhibition, at the beginning of the electoral campaign to elect the new Mayor of São Paulo, means that it is inserted in a moment of (re)definition of strategies and expectations for the future of the metropolis. In order to maximise its impact on the realignment of objectives and to include the greatest number of voices, the show will co-occur with the seminar Open Letters, a series of discussions with agents that have been actively working on the structuring of a critical and propositional thought for the city. Fully aware of the reductive character of having to select from such a complex collection of voices, to ‘open letters’ to the public is, above all, an attempt to (re)activate desire as a transformational tool beyond the possible.

#1 – Project (06.08.2016)

The seminar begins with a discussion about the importance and insufficiencies of the project’s role in the physical structuring of the city, and as an active agent in acting within a socio-political sphere. If the project is what distinguishes architecture from mere construction, giving it a semantic content and consequently introducing it into a speculative field, it also has the capacity, on the one hand, to involve and affect ethically and aesthetically the set of people with who it comes in contact and, on the other hand, be a vector of segregation and alienation.

Mediator: Lizete Rubano

Participants: Marcelo Coelho, Marcos Boldarini, Pablo Hereñú, Sandra Kocura

Lizete Rubano – Architect and Urban Planner by FAU Mackenzie, with a master and doctorate from FAU USP. Worked alongside social movements for housing from the Southern São Paulo and with the residents of Vila Itororó, advising the office at FAU Mackenzie, the Mosaico, in the development of a project for the area. Between 1989-1992 she worked in the COHAB-SP, in the re-planning of the vacant areas of the Teotonio Vilela, Itaquera and Jose Bonifacio compounds in the in Eastern São Paulo. She is a design professor at FAU Mackenzie since 1996, developing teaching activities (urban design and final undergraduate work) and research (collective housing and culture / city). Organized, together with architect office Héctor Vigliecca, the books “Hipóteses do real” and “Terceiro território”, in which are discussed urban projects and social housing.

Marcelo Coelho – Master in social history. One of the founders of the Vivenda Program (social business that works with low-income housing reforms) and responsible for the area of relationship with residents.

Marcos Boldarini – Architect director of the Boldarini Associated Architects with Lucas Nobre. The firm operates in the design, development and implementation of urban development projects, architecture and landscaping, having been highlighted in the areas of social housing and in the urbanization of precarious settlements. Boldarini Associated Architects have completed several award-winning projects and participated in international biennials of architecture such as Venice (2002, 2010 and 2014), Rotterdam (2009 and 2012), Quito (2010), São Paulo (2011) and Buenos Aires (2013), awarded in the last three. In 2016 the office was awarded, by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics, in the category Urbanity by all the social projects developed in São Paulo.

Pablo Hereñú – Architect and Urbanist by the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo – FAUUSP in 2001. Master (2007) and Doctor (2016) by the same institution. Member of the company Hereñú + Ferroni Arquitetos since 2002. Professor at the School of the City (São Paulo) since 2002 and Visiting Professor at the University of Florida (USA) since 2007.

Sandra Kocura – Technologist in Secretarial and Undergraduate in Social Service by UNICASTELO, trainee in the Municipal Department of Assistance and Social Development (CRAS – Itaquera), Worker in Agencies of the Elderly, Coordination and Mistier of MTST Leste1.

#2 – Strategy (13.08.2016)

The second meeting starts from a reading of São Paulo’s urban structure as a historical process guided by the interests of a small socio-spatial part of the city, to the detriment of the great majority of the population and its spaces. At a time when urban planning tends to see the city as a commodity, the meeting intends to discuss other strategies, from micro to macro-scale, that aim to counterbalance the city’s segregatory structuring and engage its citizens in the construction of a desirable citizenship and public sphere.

Mediator: Gabriel Kogan

Participants: Bel Santos Mayer, Fernando Tulio Franco, Milton Braga, Nelson Brissac Peixoto

Gabriel Kogan – Architect and journalist, graduated from the School of Architecture and Urbanism from the University of São Paulo (FAU-USP). His research intersects narrative, history, urban planning, architecture, art and design. He worked at StudioMK27 from 2007 to 2015 and is a collaborator at the daily newspaper Folha de São Paulo. His Master thesis (developed at UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands) is an urban narrative about the history of floods in São Paulo. Additional professional experience includes the conception project for the Museum of Mines and Metal by Paulo Mendes da Rocha in 2006 and the organization of the Arte/Cidade by Nelson Brissac in 2005. As a writer, published in specialized magazines around the world such as the japanese A+U and GA House. Between 2013 and 2014, Gabriel directed five short films together with Pedro Kok, screened worldwide including ‘Time Space Existence’ exhibition during the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2015, he founded the institute CENTRO, for urban and architecture research, and is the editor of Revista Centro, which had its first issue released in December.

Bel Santos Mayer – Social Educator, graduated in Mathematics, Bachelor in Tourism and has specialization in Social Pedagogy. She is the coordinator of the Brazilian Institute of Studies and Community Support – Ibeac, responsible for the elaboration and execution of projects to prevent violence and promote human rights. She is an advisor to the Municipal Department of Education of Guarulhos, for the policy of promoting racial and ethnic equality in education. Since the 1990s supports the creation of Community Libraries in the outskirts of São Paulo. Represented the LiteraSampa reading center in the process of elaborating the Municipal Plan of the Book, Reading, Literature and Library of São Paulo – GT PMLLLB / SP.

Fernando Túlio Salva Rocha Franco – Special adviser to the office of the Municipal Department of Urban Development (SMDU), was executive secretary of the Municipal Council of Urban Policy during the process of participatory review of the Strategic Master Plan and Zoning of the City of São Paulo and coordinates the Urban Operation Management Group Consorciada Água Branca. Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and a degree in Architecture and Urbanism from FAUUSP where he was a member of the Fluvial Urban Infrastructures research group, Fluvial Metropolis Group. He collaborated with Estudio Gibraltar and with the office Base 3 Architects in projects such as the redevelopment of the Favela do Sapé.

Milton Braga – Professor at FAUUSP, where he developed research on urban design in his master’s degree (1999) and doctorate (2006). In 2010, he published the book “The Brasilia Contest: Seven Projects for a Capital City”, which won the second place in the 53rd Jabuti Prize in Architecture and Urbanism (2011) and the first prize “ex aequo” in the book category of the VIII Biennial Ibero-American of Architecture and Urbanism, in Cadiz (2012). He is a founding partner of the MMBB architecture office, founded in 1991 in São Paulo.

Nelson Brissac Peixoto – Philosopher, working with issues related to art and urbanism. PhD in Philosophy at the University of Paris I – Sorbonne, is professor of the Technologies of Intelligence and Digital Design at PUC-SP. He published, among other books, Urban Landscapes, Ed. Senac, 1996; Art / City – Urban Interventions, Ed. Senac, 2002; Critical Landscapes – Robert Smithson: art, science and industry, Ed. Senac / Educ, 2010; And Arte / Cidade Zona Leste, Ed Dardo, Spain, 2011. He was responsible for the organization and curation of Arte / Cidade (1994-2002). Currently develops the ZL Vortex projects, in the east zone of São Paulo, and Arte/Cidade Linha Metálica.

#3 – Resistance (20.08.2016)

The third meeting will discuss the intervention and occupation of the urban space as a tool to forge and horizontalize a dialogue with the public power, as well as an important instrument in the process of subjectivation and symbolic empowerment of citizens over their city. At a time when the crisis of representative democracy is increasingly evident, numerous cities have been the stage for the emergence of new forms of collectivity as political entities, which use revolution and resistance as acts of catharsis, negotiation, and mediation in order to achieve reforms and their “right to the city”.

Mediators: Bruno de Almeida and Fernando Falcon

Participants: André Luiz, Carmen Silva, Luciana Bedeschi

André Luiz – Founder of TV DOC, an information channel on the web. The project aims to give voice and visibility to the community of Capão Redondo, awakening the protagonism of local youth, through audiovisual workshops and activities that value diversity. TV interviewees include the city’s mayor, Fernando Haddad (PT), and the President of the Republic, Dilma Rousseff.

Carmen Silva – One of the leaders of the FLM – Frente de Luta por Moradia (Front for the fight for Housing), a collective made up of representatives of autonomous social movements whose goal is urban reform and fairer urban development. And also one of the founders of the MSTC – Movimento dos Sem-Teto do Centro (Movement of the Homeless in the Center).

Observatório de Remoções – Luciana Bedeschi – Lawyer, Bachelor of Laws graduated from FMUSP, postdoctoral degree in Human Rights by FDUPS, Master in Urban Law by PUCSP, PhD in Planning and Territorial Management by UFABC.

#4 – 2054 (27.08.2016)

The last meeting of the seminar opens up space to speculate on other forms of being in the city, by the time of the 5th centenary of São Paulo in 2054. If the celebration of the 4th Centenary symbolized the rise of this city as the great Brazilian metropolis, using architecture as the main way of demonstrating this power, how can we think of the future of the same city after a disorderly, unequal and excluding expansion?

Mediator: Fernando Falcon

Participants: Alexandre Delijaicov, Lucas Girard, Marcus Vinicius de Moraes

Alexandre Delijaicov – Architect of the São Paulo City Hall; Professor of the Department of Design of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo; Coordinator of the Fluvial Urban Infrastructure Architecture Research Group (Fluvial Metropolis Group) and coordinator of the Research Group on Public Equipment Architecture of the FAU-USP Project Laboratory (LABPROJ). Master in 1998 “Tietê, the rivers and the design of the city” and doctorate in 2005 “São Paulo, fluvial metropolis”, at FAU-USP. Concept of the projects of “Social Equipment Squares” in 1992 and “Unified Educational Centers” in 2001, in the Department of Buildings – EDIF, of the Municipal Secretariat of Urban Infrastructure and Works of the City of São Paulo.

Lucas Girard – Architect, member of 23SUL. Currently, at the FAUUSP, he researches the impact on space and the potential of information technology to reorganize the built environment.

Marcus Vinicius de Moraes – Born and raised in the outskirts, in the extreme east of São Paulo, he is a Socio-Environmental Manager, focusing on Solidarity Economy, mainly in projects in the eastern periphery of São Paulo, and has actively participated in Permaculture and Agroecology projects both in rural and urban areas In other states. Popular environmental educator, permacultor and community articulator, acts from the perspective of a culture of peace, and seeks to democratize access to social technologies.