Debate Forum + SP Meeting

The Forum will consist of Thematic Sessions, selected through an open call, composed of a proposing coordinator and up to four presenters of academic works on the theme. It will also feature conferences by invited speakers, internationally recognized for their contributions to the theme of the 14th BIAsp, chosen by the event’s curatorial team.

In this edition, the BIAsp Debate Forum will incorporate the São Paulo Meeting, in a partnership between IABsp, INCT Klimapolis Brazil (CNPq), and the Postgraduate Program in Architecture and Urbanism at Mackenzie. The SP Meeting is an international conference that has been promoting transdisciplinary discussions on the urgent challenges of urban adaptation for ten years, in partnership with researchers from Germany, the United States, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

Selected thematic sessions

The curators of the 14th BIAsp selected 18 Thematic Sessions for the Debate Forum – SP Meeting among the 73 proposals received through the open call

Now, the registration phase for papers for these selected Thematic Sessions begins – see the list below.

Applications
To register, fill out the form available via the button below. All official information about registrations is presented in the Notice.
Sign up here.

Schedule

26.03 – 15.05
Thematic Session Registrations - including abstract of up to 2,000 characters (new date)
10.06
Publication of approved Thematic Sessions (new date)
10.06 – 10.07
Call for papers for Thematic Sessions - submission of extended abstracts, with up to 5,000 characters (new date)
31.07
Publication of Approved Papers for Thematic Sessions
25.09 – 28-09
Debate Forum + SP Meeting

Notice (updated on 10.06.25)

Applications
To register, fill out the form available via the button below. All official information about registrations is presented in the Notice.
Sign up here.

For any questions, send an email to faleconosco@bienaldearquitetura.org.br.

Approved thematic sessions

Authorship: Rubens do Amaral

How can we intervene in cities so that nature plays a leading role in urban well-being? Preserving forests and reforesting cities requires radically incorporating carbon flow and biodiversity into cities as a strategy for creating resilient microclimates. This session proposes reflections on how to configure multifunctional and multi-scale urban forests, constituting green infrastructure networks capable of intensifying essential ecosystem services – such as primary production, nutrient cycling and soil formation. The absence of these services in cities results in heat islands, floods and disasters, the result of the gap between urban planning and ecology. Bringing these two fields together is essential, considering perspectives on planning and managing urban vegetation and soil throughout the open space system. The goal is to inspire new paradigms of urban afforestation that promote well-being and strengthen climate resilience by integrating the forest above and the forest below.

Authorship: Godoi

The impact of a warmer world on coastal cities will be even greater. It is inevitable that we will have to learn to live with rising sea levels and obsolete infrastructure. This will be the case for Baixada Santista, the cross-cutting theme of this thematic session, whose territory is in dire need of innovative and radical architectural solutions. The five proposed axes will be covered by the session, which will address issues such as the expansion of the port polygon, the need to expand port services while preserving forests and mangroves, the historical and contemporary approach to drainage infrastructure – from Saturnino de Brito to the episodes of the tide invading the city, the waterproofing and density of Brazil's most verticalized city, real estate booms, crooked buildings, the major PAC project – the immersed tunnel – and the insistence on highway-based solutions, and housing experiences from different political and ideological spheres.

Authorship: Bruno Amaral de Andrade

This session proposes a decolonial shift in the debate on African heritage and climate emergency, focusing on the cosmologies and resistance practices of traditional communities. We question hegemonic models of adaptation, which empty their political potential for insurgency against environmental racism and the historical disorder that consolidates socio-spatial segregation.
Communities such as Aldeia Guató, the Mebengokré nation, Candomblé terreiros and quilombos, despite being exposed and vulnerable, demonstrate that resilience emerges from radically situated epistemologies, intrinsic to their memory and the way they build and inhabit. We seek approaches from a diversity of traditional sites and communities in Brazil and Latin America that reveal ways to map cultural values (cartographies, orality), assess risks (impacts and threats) and develop climate action plans (strategies, policies).
This session invites a radical transformation, regarding the role of (bio)cultural heritage in combating climate extremes (chaos) and the becoming of inhabiting the Cosmos (order). More than “including” traditional knowledge in current architectural or urban models, we aim for a complete reorganization of adaptation. What forms of spiritual climate governance emerge from the integration of ancestral knowledge and community practices? How can the cosmoperceptions of traditional peoples translate into more just, inclusive and resilient cities? How can climate action be reimagined based on the ethics of care, reciprocity and justice for permanence in the territory?

Authorship:Fernanda de Macedo Haddad and Fernanda Amorim Militelli

Verticalization as a model of social housing in the context of metropolitan regions and urban agglomerations in the global south, where social inequality and spatial segregation of urban structures are aggravated by the climate crisis, still remains the predominant alternative.
Housing policies that use verticalization and the homogenization of construction techniques, disregarding biomes, are colonialist policies that subjugate the environment, the local population and different ways of living. In this context, it is expected that this thematic session will spark discussion of relevant aspects of the problems involving the practice of verticalized social housing in cities in the global south in the face of the challenges of climate justice.

Authorship: Rodrigo Amaral

This session encourages papers that explore techniques, innovations and socio-environmental impacts of construction with stabilized earth, promoting interdisciplinary dialogues with: cultural heritage (traditional knowledge and territorial identity), sustainability (CO₂ reduction, soil management and circular economy), public policies (technical standards such as ABNT and integration into housing programs) and convergent technologies (biomaterials, prefabrication and automation). The aim is to overcome the reductionist view of earth as a primitive material, raising awareness among professionals and the market about its contemporary potential, through practical applications (detailing, execution, pathologies and compatibility with installations), dissemination strategies (technical documentation, global cases – especially the Global South) and transdisciplinary approaches (engineering and social sciences). The aim is to promote research that unites tradition and innovation, as well as communication strategies for architects, builders and society, highlighting stabilized earth as a sustainable solution, aligned with resource efficiency and socio-environmental justice.

Authorship:Alexandre Fontenelle-Weber and Fernando Tulio Salva Rocha Franco

In the Brazilian federal system, the successful implementation of climate action at the frontline depends on coordination between actors at different levels. This involves setting climate goals, strengthening capacities and creating instruments that are aligned with the variety of regional, municipal and territorial contexts and that consider the impact of climate on historical situations of inequalities and socio-spatial vulnerabilities that are evident in the challenges of transportation, housing, waste management, among other issues.
This exercise requires bringing together different interlocutors. The proposal is to organize a debate and a workshop over a period of time, bringing together: (i) representatives of the federal government (cities and environment department), (ii) organizations that have worked on the theme of Brazilian climate federalism, such as FNP, ABM, GIZ, C40, ICLEI, WRI and the ZeroCem Institute itself, (iii) members of academia that have developed research on the theme, such as FGV, and (iv) socio-environmental movements with local perspectives.

Authorship: Silvia Maciel Savio Chataignier

Climate change research is based on observations of environmental phenomena and is fundamentally based on scientific data measured at specific sites, indicated in previous mappings as points of special interest. This information is transformed into scientific content in the most diverse areas of knowledge, including architecture and urban planning. Our proposal is to highlight the importance of fieldwork, such as monitoring the climate situation. We consider monitoring based on cross-methodologies. Consequently, as an unfolding of this specific knowledge, we highlight the steps involved in these research processes: the development of devices and sensors; data collection; subsequent analyses; data models and proposals based on previous monitoring. Thinking about sustainable development encompasses transdisciplinarity and collective work, without which urban planners would not approach the environmental complexity faced today. We invite you to debate monitoring as part of a consistent and transversal contribution to planetary emergencies.

Authorship:Fernanda Accioly Moreira, Francisco de Assis Comaru, Leonardo Ferreira da Silva and Felipe Rakauskas

The thematic session proposes to discuss experiences and methodological strategies in the development and implementation of popular planning instruments aimed at promoting socio-environmental and climate justice in popular territories, such as community plans for climate risk reduction and adaptation and neighborhood plans – instruments that operate at different scales, based on participatory processes. The session will address the urgency of integrated solutions to address climate challenges, which articulate technical knowledge and local knowledge, and which actively involve communities in all stages of the process to strengthen their autonomy and build collective response capacity in the face of extreme climate events. Advances and challenges of these initiatives will be presented, valuing both methodological lessons learned and practical impacts on the territories. The debate will bring together diverse experts (researchers, public managers, urban planners, representatives of social movements, universities and civil society organizations) combining structured presentations with open dialogues.

Authorship:Aksel Ersoy and Diego Hernando Florez Ayala

Urban mobility is an essential component of people's everyday activities, and is directly affected by the rapid increase in the urban population, unplanned urbanization, and the changing socioeconomic conditions. It is a major determinant of quality of life, public transit, employment, education and health care. Furthermore, having access to efficient urban mobility systems remains one of the fundamental issues for policy makers, especially in large cities and densely populated neighborhoods. To address some of these challenges, shared mobility – urban planning nexus offers opportunities for enabling spaces for collaborative urban planning and governance practices. Such nexus can serve as a vehicle to explore the changing dynamics of urban challenges during which experimentation is used to inform urban practice. Our session focuses on how the application of this approach in cities can contribute to the sustainable transitions of urban mobility systems while promoting active mobility and energy transition in public transport.

Authorship:Angelica Benatti Alvim and Ruth Maria da Costa Athaíde

The session invites papers that critically analyze how urban, territorial and housing planning instruments have (or have not) contributed to addressing the challenges of the climate crisis in vulnerable territories. We are interested in exploring the articulation — or lack thereof — between master plans, housing policies and adaptation strategies, especially in contexts marked by socio-spatial inequalities, occupations in environmentally sensitive areas and lack of infrastructure. We start from the recognition that these territories are the most exposed to the impacts of extreme events and, at the same time, the least covered by effective public policies.
Based on the concept of urban resilience — understood as the capacity for adaptation, transformation, and reorganization in the face of ongoing crises — we seek contributions that question the limits of traditional planning and propose integrated, fair, and transformative alternatives. Experiences and analyses that articulate the right to housing, climate justice, and territorial restructuring will be valued, expanding the scope of public policies beyond risk mitigation.

Authorship:Elena Guidetti and Caterina Barioglio

Cities worldwide are increasingly confronted with the obsolescence of office buildings, particularly those constructed between the 1960s and 1980s. Often functionally redundant and technically outdated, these structures—much like the abandoned factories of earlier decades—now represent a latent resource. This session explores adaptive reuse as a critical architectural and urban strategy, capable of transforming such buildings through minimal intervention and maximum retention. Positioned between heritage conservation and climate-conscious transformation, adaptive reuse offers a meaningful alternative to demolition by engaging with the embodied energy and material continuity of the existing fabric. We welcome contributions, including case studies, theoretical reflections, or interdisciplinary perspectives that address the architectural, environmental, and social dimensions of reusing vacant office stock. Of particular interest are projects that reimagine these buildings for housing, public infrastructure, or hybrid programs through design, policy, or technical innovation. The session aims to frame adaptive reuse as a proactive, low-carbon response to today's urban and ecological urgencies.

Authorship:George Alexandre Ferreira Dantas and Francisco Ricardo Avelino Dantas Filho

In light of the climate and social emergencies of the Anthropocene, this session proposes rethinking the role of the architect as an agent of territorial transformation and incorporator of futures. More than designing buildings, it is about acting with political and ethical responsibility on urban land, articulating design, incorporation, spatial justice and regeneration. Based on practices that cross architecture, urbanism, activism and real estate development, we seek to bring together theoretical and practical works that express this action: social housing led by architects, regenerative occupations, sustainable retrofit, new methodologies of social impact and approaches that integrate aesthetics, ecology and viability. In this way, it seeks to stimulate critical reflection on professional autonomy in the face of concentrating models, the possibilities of mediating conflicts, acting with innovation and regenerating urban ecosystems. An invitation to think and discuss new imaginaries and horizons, with responsibility and creative power to regenerate what (and for whom) is possible (and beyond the possible).

Authorship: Pierre-André Martin

This session proposes a reflection on the transformative role of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) in the ecological, symbolic and social reconfiguration of urban public spaces. Inserted in the second thematic axis of the 14th BIAsp – Living with waters –, the proposal is based on experiences that combine architecture, urbanism and landscaping with the regeneration of ecosystems, valuing strategies that strengthen territorial resilience and climate justice.
Initiatives will be presented, ranging from the renaturalization of water bodies and slope stabilization to the reconversion of urban and architectural infrastructures with low-impact materials, productive landscapes and environmental education. Among the highlights are three experiences developed in the context of Parque Orla Piratininga (POP), in Niterói (RJ), led by Consórcio POP, with direct involvement from Pierre-André Martin (Ecomimesis), Renata Gilio (KAAN Architecten) and Raquel Cruz.
As a result, the UFSCAR Library project – Lagoa do Sino will also be presented, conceived as the new civic center for the campus, whose architecture in rammed earth and certified wood articulates vernacular knowledge and contemporary environmental solutions.
The session also invites the participation of other national and international experiences — urban, peripheral or natural — that address coexistence with water as a tool for urban restructuring, environmental regeneration and social inclusion, contributing to a broad agenda of innovation in ecological infrastructure sensitive to the territory.

Authorship:Maria Isabel Imbrunito and Patricia Rodrigues Samora

The session proposes to discuss the multiple forms of production and transformation of social housing in popular territories, with a focus on socio-environmental inequalities and the impacts of climate change. Studies will be brought together that analyze both the actions of the State — whose large-scale housing production has often generated unsustainable and vulnerable spaces — and the autonomous initiatives of the population. The proposal includes research on public policies, territorial conflicts, adaptation strategies and social participation, with special attention to the experiences of socially and politically marginalized groups, such as women, the elderly and racialized populations. By promoting the exchange of diverse perspectives, the session seeks to contribute to the critical debate on climate justice and the right to housing, emphasizing the strategic role that the housing fabric plays in the discussion by aggravating or mitigating the climate crisis.

Authorship: Mariami Maghlakelidze

Anthropogenic land-use changes, driven by rapid urban expansion and rising population pressures, have significantly exacerbated climate change, intensifying the urban heat island effect (UHI) and raising levels of airborne pollutants. Global forests, indispensable carbon sinks that sequester up to approximately 7.6 gigatons of CO₂ annually, play a vital role in moderating local microclimates through evapotranspiration, wind, and albedo modulation, enhancing thermal comfort, improving air quality, and supporting ecological and human well-being. However, their extensive decline throughout the Anthropocene has substantially heightened urban vulnerability to a spectrum of environmental and climatic stressors. This study employs a comparative framework utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling to assess the efficacy of reforestation and forest structural designs in reducing land surface temperature (LST), increasing evapotranspiration, and generating localized 'urban cool islands'. Supporting integrative climate adaptation strategies that alleviate climate-driven heat stress while fostering urban resilience and ecological integrity.

Authorship:Martin Gegner and Jonas Fahlbusch

This session will examine how different scientific disciplines – urban and regional planning, urban design, sociology, geography, interdisciplinary projects – can support, accompany or even initiate the transformation of former industrial and infrastructure areas into sustainable use. Case studies as well as theoretical and methodological studies are needed. The focus of the presentation will be on the question of the interaction between scientific analysis and practical implementation by non-scientific partners. The methodological and theoretical context should also be clearly highlighted in the case studies. The session will not only be interdisciplinary, but will also provide intercultural insights. Therefore, special attention will be paid to the transferability of solutions between different countries or even continents.

Authorship: Ricardo Calabrese

The climate crisis and the intensification of extreme events pose new challenges to contemporary urban planning, especially in vulnerable regions. This study proposes a broader reflection on solar neighborhoods as an architectural strategy integrated with energy transition, urban resilience, and decarbonization, articulating this approach with other sustainable solutions for a warmer world, such as green infrastructure, urban shading, and bioclimatic architecture. Based on a literature review and comparative analysis of international experiences (Japan, Dubai, Austria, and Germany), the potential of these models in the Brazilian context is assessed, which, despite advances in photovoltaic generation, still lacks coordination between energy and urban planning. The results indicate that solar neighborhoods, when implemented with integrated public policies, economic incentives, and community participation, can significantly reduce emissions, increase energy autonomy, and mitigate the impacts of climate change. It is concluded that their replication depends on integration with other architectural strategies for more resilient and sustainable cities.

Authorship: Renata Castilho Gilio Goorden

The panel “Contemporary Architecture and Climate Emergency: Sustainable Paths between the Public and Private Sectors” proposes a debate on how architects, urban planners and other agents have responded, in different contexts, to the climate crisis through sustainable practices. Based on experiences that cross the public and private spheres, strategies such as the use of low-impact materials, energy efficiency, nature-based solutions and public policies for resilient constructions will be discussed. The proposal seeks to integrate different scales — from public facilities to housing, including community and institutional projects — and open space for interdisciplinary, academic and experimental practices. The goal is to share visions and methodologies that point to an architecture committed to environmental regeneration, climate justice and collective responsibility towards the territory. By bringing together different trajectories, the panel aims to build a common repertoire of good practices and strengthen the role of architecture in socio-environmental transformation.

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