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Q: Who are you and what did you bring to the São Paulo Calling exhibition?

A: I am an architect and part of the Laboratorio Arti Civiche (LAC), (http://www.articiviche.net), an interdisciplinary group of researchers, within the University of Roma Tre, investigating territories by creatively interacting with its citizens towards a common and collective transformation of the built environment.

When Stefano Boeri invited us to participate to São Paulo Calling, we decided to present the work that LAC has carried out in Metropoliz, in particular in response to a point of the Manifesto that says: "informal settlements are fast, sometimes faster than the ability of the public administration to plan its development". Metropoliz is presented in the exhibition as an occupation of the Blocchi Precari Metropolitani (Metropolitan Precarious Blocks), within the framework of the struggle of the housing movement, born in the total vacuum of public policies on housing and in response to speculation in real estate and land use.

The central question that we wanted to highlight about Metropoliz is the idea that a space created to give immediate solution to the social housing issue, can became an opportunity to experiment, through the transformation ...

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On a beautiful and warm Sunday morning in January, during the first weekend of the Sao Paulo Calling-project, Anna Dieztsch from DBBA, Joseph Grima from Abitare and me as the SEHAB urban planning coordinator came together to discuss together with the population the urban plan for São Francisco. It promised to get interesting: The podium discussion was led by myself, an urban planner with European background; Anna, a Brazilian architect, living and working for many years in New York, and Joseph Grima, an anglo-italian editor.

In 2010, SEHAB decided to elaborate an urban plan that would finally turn the punctual interventions by the public authorities of the last 30 years into a neighborhood. The plan was finalized within a six month period by the SEHAB urban design team, together with the team of Habi Leste (architects, engineers and social workers), responsible for the coordination of the slum-upgrading program in the Eastern part of the city, and with the participation of the local population and planning offices such as SMDU, SP Urbanismo, SP Trans, SVMA, amongst others. SEHAB is currently working on the implementation of the first phase of construction, together with Davis Brody Bond Aedes (DBBA).

The event ...

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On that January morning I woke up, got into my car and once again drove to the Eastern part of the city.

It was a sunny Saturday morning and the traffic was calm. So, I decided to go back in time and make an evaluation of the last years of this journey.

Many images started to be processed forming part of a history, and even before this film could reach an end, I arrived in São Francisco.

Near Rio Claro field, I saw many food stalls, handcrafts and a big stage from which we would be listening to good Brazilian pop songs later on.

Everything was well organized. Even the children were in their new uniform waiting for the soccer game.

At Promorar Rio Claro, Posagre was ready for SP Calling opening ceremony.

A large group of people was looking forward to the lectures and statements in order to exchange knowledge and experience.

Some discussion panels had the participation of leaderships of the respective areas, experts and guests.

Suddenly a community leader used the opportunity to talk about the transformation San Francisco has being going through in the last 30 years. According ...

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There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the relationship that the Municipal Housing Secretariat has been constructing with leaders of community organizations in São Francisco. The São Paulo Calling - Jornada da Habitação held on January 28th and 29th offered multiple evidence of an increasingly mature relationship between these agents, prevailing respect,tolerance, and joint search for solutions to matters of public and collective interest.

The first element to be highlighted as an expression of cooperation among them is the presence of a significant group of community leaders in all the preparatory activities and during the Jornada, ranging from activities that have entertaining and recreational nature to the discussions around the central themes of informal settlement upgrading in the city of São Paulo.

Guigui, Carminha, Luizão, Rose and Jerônimo, among others, have taken turns to represent their community at the time of the exhibition opening, in the discussions, and in the workshop with students from FAU Mackenzie, but also in the soccer competition and in the presentation of musical groups. Besides this, they asked Francesco Carreri for changes in the script of the minhada do ‘descobrimento’ (walk for the ‘discover’) of an important part of the neighborhood. ...

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If we describe the way in which politics and architecture have experienced the birth, growth and explosion of the phenomenon of informal settlements (favelas, slums, bidonville, townships), if we reconstruct this history, we should speak of indifference and condemnation.
Since the end of the Second World War a lapse in memory, in attention, has created a paradoxical situation where, for at least 40 years, architecture and politics have argued to the historic city, the new city of trustees , the city of urban sprawl, but they were unable to face what was happening: anywhere a city based on the principle of survival was born, a city pushed to make maximum use of space, with minimal investments and costs in materials and technologies.
An unplanned city but made by a lot of rules. This informal city is now home for 33% of urban inhabitants of the globe.
A few months ago the population living in cities exceeded 50% of that living in the entire planet. This means that today we have 3 ½ billion urban people, a billion and half of whom live in informal settlements. For 2050, the urban population will be 75% of the entire population of the

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"Hospital! Hospital! "And" Labyrinth! Labyrinth! "These are two slogans that guide us. They are words shouted joyfully by children leading a lenghty parade of people in the ascents and declines of Sao Francisco, dressed in white t-shirts decorated with hand-painted red hearts, under a relentless sun. The parade is formed by the comunidade of São Francisco, a "favela" of 35,000 people east of Sao Paulo that Sehab - Secreteria Municipal de Habitação -is transforming into a "town". This is the first Jornada de Habitação from the exhibition "São Paulo Calling", curated by Stefano Boeri, that in the coming months will bring more days like this in different areas of the city. The walk takes a different path than the one established and previously negotiated, even in areas where perhaps we should not have appeared without due notice. This causes a certain tension but then it flows smoothly through to the end. people looked first surprised, then they listened and finally found themselves agreeing: for the inhabitants it would be very important for a hospital to be built in São Francisco, given that today it takes almost an hour to reach the nearest hospital. Here, today, the claim for the house ...

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