São Paulo e outras cidades fantásticas - 14ᵃ Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo

Project implementation: Spain, Italy, Brazil
Project development: Spain, Brazil

This work is a collage-like journey through several cities without many apparent similarities, but connected by a common perspective that highlights aspects intimately linked to the environment, such as vegetation, its relationship with water, and the climate. The approach is neither technical nor academic, but rather phenomenological: when faced with stimuli such as heat, poetic solutions are proposed, sometimes looking to the past for answers, attempting to seduce the viewer, inviting them to forget prejudices, unlock their imagination, and connect with their physical well-being.

This line of work, which began years ago in Madrid, was developed in depth in the "Fantastic Guide to São Paulo," a faux illustrated tourist guide published in 2015 that blends reality and fiction. If the tourist guide is a narrative for mass consumption of the contemporary city, this project builds on that idea and proposes to normalize a utopian narrative, presenting surprising situations to the reader as if they were everyday, connecting cities where the author has lived, connecting problems that seem local but are global.

The drawings on display serve as sketches to draw attention to the Biennial's thematic axes. To "Preserve forests and reforest cities," it is necessary to ensure optimal conditions for the survival of bumblebees, thrushes, and other pollinators, which involves caring for existing vegetation. Although the presence of water was decisive for the founding of cities, in their development we have forgotten its importance. We cannot "Coexist with water" without knowing it exists, so a map of each city is displayed, with its waterways and infrastructure developed and then buried and forgotten. "Renovate more and build green" implies preserving the architectural heritage of historically valuable popular buildings such as Neomudejar or transforming interior courtyards into water gardens for cooling off in the summer to "Ensure climate justice." But it also involves transforming the Minhocão (Minhocão) or the Puente de Vallecas (Vallecas Bridge). Both are very similar examples of large-scale infrastructure projects designed for cars in the 1970s that act as physical boundaries, accentuate inequality between neighborhoods, and whose associated problems have mobilized the neighborhood for years. Instead of opting for total demolition, the project presents modifications with the aim of redefining them, valuing the enormous material resources invested in their construction, but also their symbolic power as a monument to the past adapted to the needs of the future.

The drawings have been adapted to the exhibition format of this Biennial and will be part of the publication São Paulo and other Fantastic Cities, published by Lote42 and released at the end of 2025.

Participate in the program of debates, workshops and associated activities!

TODAY (10.10)

2:30 pm – table Risk-Free Periphery in the Context of Climate Change

4pm – table Knowing to Transform: Community Climate Risk Reduction and Adaptation Plans

6:30 pm – table Inclusive Adaptation: Nature-Based Solutions in the Peripheries

9am – Drawing Workshop: Oscar Niemeyer's Architecture in Ibirapuera Park and the Climate Challenge

IN THE NEXT DAYS (11 to 14.10)

ATTENTION the table Palmas: For 36 years, the ecological capital of Tocantins which would be held on 10/11 | 7pm was canceled.

11.10 and 12.10 | 9am – workshop Inventa(rio) Fronteiras: Playing for Multispecies Cities

11.10 | 10am – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 11am – table Learning to inhabit the Anthropocene: the crisis of architecture

11.10 | 2pm – table Architecture for Learning and Civic Use

11.10 | 3pm – table Culture and Public Architecture

11.10 – 15h – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 4pm – table Reconnecting with Nature & Circular Design

11.10 | 5pm – table Architecture of Belonging: Interpreting Heritage Through Place

12.10 | 10am – table Experience: Climate Refuges and Naturalized Public Spaces, with Eco-Neighborhood

12.10 | 10:30 am – table Childhoods and Climate: Climate Justice in Vulnerable Territories

12.10 | 10:30 am – Windsock Workshop with the Floating Collective

12.10 | 3pm – table Doing a lot with a little: architectures for a planet in transition with Esteban Benavides from Al Borde office

12.10 | 4:30 pm – table Earth – building a sustainable and democratic future

12.10 | 5:45 pm – table French presence at the Biennale and screening of the film AJAP – Albums of Young Architects and Landscape Architects

13.10 – activity Pantanal Action at IABsp

10/14 | 10am – table Urgent Panorama! Space as an act of permanence

14.10 | 6pm – Launch of the “Nature-Based Education” Guide

JOIN! IT'S ALL FREE!

And there's much more until October 19th!

NOTE OF CONDOLENCE

With deep sorrow, the Brazilian Institute of Architects – São Paulo Department (IABsp) mourns the passing of architect and landscape architect Kongjian Yu, a global leader in ecological urbanism, and the members of his team who accompanied him, tragically killed during the filming of a documentary. The institute is honored to have had him as a participant in the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, where his transformative vision strengthened the dialogue between global challenges and local realities. IABsp emphasizes that Yu's contribution, which transcends borders, will remain an inspiration for generations and expresses its condolences to China, to the families of all the deceased, to his friends, and to all those impacted by his genius and dedication. Read the full note here.

São Paulo and other fantastic cities

Angela Leon