Architecture and Activism in Brazil

As part of the 2010 International Studies Lecture Series: Contemporary Visual Culture in East Asia, Latin America and Europe (organized by Dr. Smith's Paideia cohort: Kimberly Griffin, Emily Gutzmer, Connor Hanrahan, Kinsey Keck, Dianna Parra, Tommy Rogers, & Stephanie Taylor):

Daniela Sandler

Department of the History of Art & Visual Culture

University of California at Santa Cruz

"Urban Stagecraft:

Architecture, Public Space, and Social Inequality in Sao Paulo"

Friday April 16

12:00 PM, Cullen 37

Since the 1990s, high-profile architectural and cultural initiatives have popped up in the middle of crime-ridden, dilapidated neighborhood of Luz, in Sao Paulo. The district, nicknamed "Crackland" for its drug problems, has become home to cutting-edge urban design and adaptive-reuse projects.

While the government attempts to refashion the area into a Cultural Pole, the population- including slum inhabitants, homeless, street vendors, and mass-transit commuters- has been further segregated. Local social movements, however, have found ways to demand a more demographic and divers city by transforming the meanings, perceptions, and images of buildings and urban space.