The creativity of Kazakh architects has varied from seeking innovation during the Soviet era to the identification of national and regional characteristics during the years of independence. Among Kazakhstan’s many talented architects, masters such as Bek Ibrayev and Saken Narynov occupy a special niche, acted as both builders and conceptual thinkers and philosophers. They embodied in their projects a deep synthesis of form, image, meaning and cultural context. Architects with developed cultural reflection, as carriers of local identity, used architectural space as a philosophical statement, expressing ideas about time, memory and human experience. The aim of the research is to analyze and identify the distinctive features of the architectural heritage of B. Ibrayev and S. Narynov, revealing the approaches and conceptual depth of their work, which determined their role as architect-philosophers in shaping the regional architectural identity. The methodology is based on a comprehensive approach that includes field research, architectural and compositional analysis, and semantic interpretation of completed projects by B. Ibrayev and S. Narynov. The material and spatial characteristics of architectural objects were taken into account, as well as their intellectual and symbolic content, reflecting the authors’ ideas and their correlation with regional identity. The comparative study was conducted to identify ways of interpreting traditional forms, images and archetypes in contemporary architectural practice. As a result, the key techniques of form creation and semantic transformation of each architect were identified, contributing to the formation of a new architectural language that combines cultural memory and local identity. For contemporary practice in Kazakhstan, the significance of this research lies in the fact that, using the examples of projects by B. Ibrayev and S. Narynov, the Kazakh architectural context is learning to perceive regionalism not as stylistic adaptation, but as a unique philosophical and cultural strategy. This strategy is based on the deep archetypes of nomadic civilization, the mythopoetic of space, and the sacred geography of the steppe.
This paper examines power structures, asymmetries in civic participation, and the public legitimization of politicians through tourism and religious practices, as well as whether religious festivals and brotherhoods are linked to power transfers via tourism in the region of Nombre de Dios in Durango, México. Since the 16th century, power relations have been shaped by cultural syncretism between Spaniards and indigenous peoples through festivals, with modes of domination based on religious structures known as brotherhoods and sisterhoods. The study’s methodology is qualitative and consists of a review of historical archives, direct observation, and open interviews with key stakeholders during the 2023 Holy Week festivities, which were organized by municipal political authorities and led by the brotherhoods and sisterhoods. An analysis is presented along three lines: 1) the origins and power structures of the festival in the 16th century, 2) the brotherhoods and sisterhoods and the transfer of power from the 16th century to the 21st century, and 3) the public legitimization of politicians through tourism. According to the results, religious festivals play a substantial role in shaping the power structures of Nombre de Dios by serving as tourist attractions and validating authoritarian political regimes.
The primary contribution of active facades to the walkability of cities is generating street movement throughout the day by promoting a diversity of uses and attractiveness for pedestrians on the ground floors of buildings. This movement, supported by street observers, sidewalk guardians, storefronts and counters, contributes to making public spaces safer. The "eyes on the street", advocated by Jane Jacobs in 1961, reappear in the debates of urbanists, architects and thinkers of urban space, even when discussing "smart cities" with a focus on people. It's worth noting, however, that a mix of land uses and active facades alone is insufficient to make cities more walkable and safer. Sidewalks need to be wider, well-paved, well-signposted, unobstructed, and shaded, especially in hot cities like Salvador. To deepen the understanding of the possible contributions of active facades, without ignoring such caveats, the methodology used was the post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of Fonte do Boi Street in the Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia. For the systematization and application of this methodology, ways to measure walkability and its relationship with active facades were researched, selecting the ITDP Brazil’s iCam tool. Before that, the foundation of the main concepts was established, seeking relevant authors in the literature review, as well as the need to update and contextualize their arguments. The POE results met the objectives of this article, keeping in mind research limitations and confirming existing relationships between active facades and walkability on the street under observation.
Despite the geographical and ideological proximity between the dictatorships of António Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970) and Francisco Franco (1892-1975), their exchange of knowledge concerning housing and urban development in the 1940s and 1950s has received little scholarly attention. This article examines the extent to which Spanish technicians and policymakers – particularly the minority who guided the country’s urban development – were aware of and evaluated the urban planning and housing policies of Portugal’s Estado Novo. The analysis focuses on the Alvalade Neighbourhood in Lisbon, built according to an Urbanisation Plan of acknowledged success, by João Guilherme Faria da Costa (1906-1971), and integrated into the municipal plan by Étienne de Gröer (1882-1974), developed with the impulse of Minister Duarte Pacheco (1900-1943). The research is based on a bibliographical and documentary review, complemented by direct experience of the Alvalade Neighbourhood. The study reveals that the initiative was both known and appreciated in Spain, contributes to the knowledge of the international dissemination of the Alvalade experience and, by suggesting some key differences between the two national contexts, lays the groundwork for a further comparison of the urban planning and housing achievements under both Iberian regimes.
The relations between the city and nature in socially produced space are full of contradictions and conflicts intrinsic to the capitalist mode of production. The distribution, consumption, and appreciation, as well as the uses and appropriations of elements associated with nature, are different and unequal among the different inhabitants of cities depending on income, age, race, ethnicity, class, and place of residence. In Lisbon, the material nature (green spaces and the Tagus River); the presentation and preparation as a green city; the discourse and several sustainability actions; the local and metropolitan greening plans (from the public authorities to the real estate agents) have been generating a favorable environment for the incorporation of these elements in real estate products, which are highly valued. Through a qualitative study involving bibliographical research, data analysis on real estate dynamics, and fieldwork in a study area located in Braço de Prata/Matinha, on the riverfront of the Marvila district, it was possible to identify a process of green gentrification. Green gentrification excludes current residents of the locality from the possibilities of a life close to the greenery (Parque Ribeirinho do Oriente/ Eastern Riverfront Park) and the Tagus, following the increase of housing prices in the area due to the valorization of environmental amenities.
The demographic shift's impact on urban utilization, construction, and adaptation has already garnered the attention of city planners. Nevertheless, this relatively 'new interest' is significantly shaped by ageism—a pervasive and negative view of ageing. In 2011, Alcântara, a parish council in Lisbon, was among the city's most aged parishes. Drawing upon a critical gerontology perspective and adopting a co-constructed action research method, this article aims to analyse how intergenerational contact is related to ageism. By triangulating data from surveys, interviews, and field notes collected during an intergenerational project between two social responses — the Senior University and the Family Support Component — in Alcântara, we analyse the outcomes of the intergenerational initiative. We explored the impact, identified the obstacles, and examined situations where ageism was either reproduced or challenged. The participants throughout the project commonly shared perspectives of othering and a narrow interpretation of activeness. The concept of physical decline as an inevitable aspect of ageing was also a recurring theme identified across various phases of the project. This belief had concrete limiting implications on the co-construction of activities. Co-construction proved to be a valuable tool, not only for engaging participants in deconstructing ageist stereotypes, but also for highlighting the pervasiveness and negative influence of ageism. We also emphasised the crucial role of the facilitator in maintaining an anti-ageist stance throughout the process.
This paper analyses public policies, housing dynamics and associations in Bairro da Torre, a segregated area on the outskirts of Lisbon, in the municipality of Cascais, currently surrounded by housing and tourism areas of considerable wealth. Characterized by ethnic-racial diversity and a history of public housing projects and resettlements, the neighbourhood has experienced significant changes in recent years, driven by public policies and local mobilization. In this context, we highlight the creation of an Urban Art Gallery, which covers the walls of several buildings and in which young residents play a central role, reflecting the dynamics of participation and transformation of the territory. Our study is based on an ethnographic approach with interviews, archival research and map analysis. Through these techniques, we explore the memory of the neighbourhood and its identities, discuss the dynamics of urban requalification, look at the development of local associations and the implementation of public policies, such as Escolhas Programme. The article aims to contribute to the reflection on state intervention in marginalized territories, namely their youth, urban segregation and territorial stigma, contributing to the memory of this neighbourhood and, consequently, to the urban history of Cascais and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.
This article examines how the processes of gentrification and touristification associated with the globalization of Madrid's economy have increased the existing socio-spatial inequalities in the city. Focusing on Lavapiés neighborhood, which is one of the most iconic historical neighborhoods of the Spanish capital, this article presents a mixed methods research based on both data extraction from official sources and conducting 22 semi-structured interviews. Findings show how the interplay between gentrification and touristification in Lavapiés has reinforced the process of expulsion of neighbors while local institutions promoted the neighborhood as the most cosmopolitan in Madrid. The final part of the article concludes that Madrid has moved in recent years towards a dual city model where the interplay between the gentrification and touristification of the historic center is the main driver of the suburbanization of poverty in contemporary Madrid.
The degradation of urban water bodies requires integrated and sustainable solutions that restore ecological functions and ecosystem services. In Belo Horizonte, intense urbanization has transformed the Ribeirão Arrudas into an impermeable channel, leading to severe flooding throughout its basin. This study proposes Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for the revitalization of Ribeirão Arrudas, integrating green and blue infrastructure and reintegrating the river into the urban landscape.The proposed interventions include partial dechannelization, reducing impermeability in riparian areas through the planting of specific tree vegetation capable of enhancing drainage and ensuring bank stabilization. Additionally, the implementation of artificial wetlands and evapotranspiration technologies (TEvap) is suggested in areas with inadequate sanitation infrastructure, aiming to treat sewage that is discharged directly into the river or its tributaries and improve water quality.The methodology is based on a literature review, case studies, and hydrological modeling to assess environmental and social impacts. The main objectives are to restore the ecosystem, mitigate floods, enhance biodiversity, improve sanitation, and create sustainable public spaces. The research presents an NBS proposal for sections of the basin identified as flood-risk areas.
Urban rivers, as components of the blue-green infrastructure, offer diverse Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES). However, their intangible nature often limits public perception and valuation. This research assessed CES perception along the Chili River in Arequipa, Peru, using surveys and participatory mapping with experts and the general population. Results indicated high valuation of scenic beauty (population: 43%; experts: 63%) and potential for research development (population: 47%; experts: 63%). Experts also emphasized cultural heritage and physical/mental health (50%). The public's primary activities were hiking (57%) and photography (30%), but a gap existed between perceived value and active participation in recreation and education. Experts highlighted tourism potential (78% strongly agree) and intangible heritage (67% strongly agree), while noting a lack of integration in environmental education (64% disagree). Mapping revealed distinct perceptions: the public identified the Intraurban section with the highest CES concentration (scenic beauty, education, heritage, knowledge, research), whereas experts emphasized the North for ecotourism (53%) and spirituality (36%), the Center for culture/landscape, and the South for research (39%) and education (28%). Water pollution (62%) and land use regulation (33%) were identified as key challenges. This study underscores the need to integrate CES into urban planning, promote community engagement, and conduct further research for the Chili River's sustainable management.
This essay, inspired by Frédéric Gros’s A Philosophy of Walking (2023), investigates how the act of walking can function as a philosophical, educational, and political practice within the urban context. From the standpoint of Educating Cities, the city is understood as an active educational space, extending beyond formal learning to encompass non-formal and informal dimensions. Thus, walking emerges as an act of resistance to the contemporary overemphasis on speed, inviting deceleration and a reflective stance toward one’s presence in urban environments. In this approach, walking encourages a heightened awareness of the social, cultural, and historical dynamics that shape the city, transforming streets and squares into a “living classroom”. Sensory engagement and the exploration of seemingly ordinary details foster critical consciousness regarding issues such as inequality, accessibility, and urban planning. Therefore, walking not only broadens our perception of place but also strengthens community bonds and enhances the sense of belonging. Moreover, the practice of walking offers a release from material and symbolic excesses, aligning with a vision of freedom and personal transformation that ultimately affects the collective. Pedagogical projects based on reflective walks can reorient one’s urban experience, further promoting empathy and inclusion. Consequently, this essay concludes that walking is not merely physical displacement but constitutes a “pedagogy of everyday life”, capable of reshaping the relationship between individuals, the city, and society, thus opening pathways toward a more equitable, participatory, sustainable, and humane coexistence.
Participatory science, also known as citizen science, is an open science practice in which individuals, both affiliated and unaffiliated with scientific institutions, collaborate on a scientific project. It is widely used for surveying various variables in cities and, particularly, in rivers. Several participatory science projects worldwide rely on digital devices for knowledge production, primarily using smartphones as a technological tool for engagement. However, there are regional developments in Latin America that occupy a similar niche, built from the perspective of the Global South's records and projects. What are the unique records of the Global South? How can we design guidelines for devices that reflect the motivations and concerns of the "Global South”? This paper presents an epistemological-methodological reflection with guidelines to enrich participatory science from a joint analysis with situated collaborative ethnography through five categories: agentivity, co-construction, collectivity, inter-institutionality, and instrumentation. We ask: How can collaborative ethnography diversify and enhance participatory science practices? What specific characteristics of the Global South shape a distinct approach to participatory scientific construction? How many of these characteristics can be integrated into a digital device, and in what ways? This work analyzes various digital devices developed within the Global South.
São Paulo, the largest metropolis in the Southern Hemisphere, is situated on a territory of exceptionally rich hydrography. The Urban Mapographies Study Group (GeMAP - FAU-USP) developed a map based on historical documents depicting the natural hydrographic system, composed of hundreds of streams, creeks, and major rivers. This map is juxtaposed with the contemporary hydrographic network. It is readily evident how urbanization has erased the vast majority of these watercourses; similarly, the map reveals their greater prevalence in peripheral areas. However, while the maps do not explicitly illustrate it, urban precarity indicators highlight the socio-environmental vulnerability of these regions, where rivers are often surrounded by degraded environments.This study proposes an examination and critical reflection on the urban planning processes that enabled the systemic erasure of the city’s rivers, contrasted with the grassroots efforts of communities inhabiting riverbanks in peripheral zones of informal urbanization, who actively engage in the conservation and enhancement of their environments. Its primary objective is to demonstrate how urban planning, aligned with capital interests, has transformed São Paulo’s rich hydrographic landscape—both morphologically and scenically—while emphasizing the counteractions of environmental collectives. While these collectives belong to communities that contributed minimally to the current environmental crises, they play a significant role in preserving environmental quality and landscape integrity within their territories. By doing so, this work underscores the importance of community associations in urban development and seeks to advance public policy debates that transcend productivist paradigms, integrating cultural and environmental dimensions into urban spatial practices.To conclude, the article synthesizes the initiatives of collectives in São Paulo’s far south, adjacent to the Billings Reservoir (Ecoativa and Imargem), as emblematic of alternative city-water relationships—less exploitative, more affective, and custodial. For nine years, GeMAP has monitored and mapped these groups’ activities through action-research methodologies grounded in collaborative knowledge production.
This paper explores the nocturnal landscape and its sociocultural and environmental dimensions, focusing on how these aspects have transformed over time. By referring to the night as a landscape, we emphasize the concept of process and attribute to it cultural and environmental values that are in continuous transformation. The main question is how the relationships between nature, the night, and the city have developed, and how these relationships have influenced landscape design, often relegating the environmental aspects of the night to a secondary status. This study investigates the social imagery, processes, and layers that have shaped our relationships into the urban and nocturnal landscape. Our aim is to contribute to the recognition of nocturnal natural processes as part of the landscape and to address the environmental dimension that has been frequently omitted from urban planning. Drawing on a region of Rio de Janeiro, between the Serra da Carioca and the sea, we conducted bibliographic and documentary research, interviews, and cartography. Through triangulation and the use of cartography to synthesize data, we demonstrate that lighting is an intrinsic part of urban design. However, its aesthetic, functional, and political values have systematically overshadowed the environmental values of the night. We emphasize the importance of considering these ecological processes on the urban agenda, as they are fundamental to contemporary discussions of urban biodiversity.
The emergence of climate change requires effective public policies for the governance of water resources in urban environments, with the aim of guaranteeing water availability in large cities. The main objective of the study carried out in Mané Dendê, a stream in the Cobre River basin, located in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil), was to evaluate a process of urban renaturalization as a strategy for recovering watercourses in a peripheral, low-income, and unequal area, using nature-based solutions and blue-green infrastructures. The methodological procedures were based on bibliographical research and analysis, statistical and cartographic data collection, as well as field research. The Cobre River basin represents the last water source with good water quality indices in Salvador, the only exception being its tributary Mané Dendê. The importance and urgency of regenerating this water body are evident, in order to guarantee water availability, increase water quality, and provide leisure spaces for the community, which is mostly low-income and racialized. The technical dimension of the action to renaturalize the Mané Dendê was problematized through questions of environmental justice. The interventions of the Mané Dendê Basin Requalification Project represent a road project that values the interconnection of transport modes in the city and disregards the socio-environmental aspect, creating more impermeable areas, removing areas of riparian forest, and keeping the main river polluted and channeled, not meeting sustainability standards.
The accelerated urbanization process in Brazil has generally been characterized by discrepancies between urban development and socio-environmental preservation. In this context, developmentalist policies have induced various changes in territories and their dynamics, as exemplified by the Central-West and the Amazon regions from the second half of the 20th century. In Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, modernization has often resulted in landscapes marked by environmental degradation and the disregard of preexisting socio-natural relationships. Aiming to deepen the debate on landscape and the tensions between urbanization and the environment, this article presents a classroom experience report from the Architecture and Urbanism program at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. The activity focused on the analysis and intervention of two streams in Cuiabá, involving a historical-documentary reading of urban morphology, as well as the characterization of landscape units along the bodies of water, complemented by field visits and interviews with the local population. The diagnoses revealed that residents' perceptions vary according to individual experiences, cultural practices, and exposure to unsanitary conditions, pollution, precarious housing, and associated risks. Based on these findings, intervention proposals, both design-based and planning-oriented, were developed, considering the landscape and its hydro-social relationships. The results highlighted the potential of this methodology to support decision-making in urban management, enhancing the dialogue between theory and practice in addressing socio-environmental issues.
The article presents the research on Lisbon's riverside area carried out by the Lisbon and the River Laboratory (12 students, 1 professor and 2 researchers), as part of the Integrated Master's Degree in Architecture at Iscte (2020/2021). Based on a conceptual grid associated with images and made up of different categories – Topography, Border/Limit, Memory, Infrastructures, Fragile Landscapes, Icons, Events, Mobility, Life, (In)predictability and Utopia – we built a visual atlas of Lisbon's riverside area in order to understand the territory and give it new meanings (Laboratório Lisboa e o Rio, 2021a). The main objective was to understand the origin and evolution of the existing buildings and the dynamics of the riverside population, in order to subsequently realise architectural proposals for regenerating the coastline. The Mnemosyne Atlas by Aby Warburg (2010) was the main reference. The methodology was based on bibliographical research and images from the archives of Lisbon City Council, the Port of Lisbon, the Lisbon Museum, the National Library, among others, and from websites. Producing the atlas meant ‘reconfiguring space, redistributing it, disorientating it’ (Didi-Huberman, 2010, pp. 6-7), in order to build an alternative geography, a new way of seeing and making visible, associating different materials that we have collected over time. Combining images and making unexpected connections from different categories that built a line of thought, allowed us to discover different views of the riverside area and, with this, create a research base for the realisation of architectural proposals for the regeneration of the coastline.
The present article aims to contribute to understanding planning and management strategies for river systems in metropolitan areas, using the experience of the “Ente de Coordinación Metropolitana de Rosario” (ECOMR) in Argentina as a case study. The Rosario Metropolitan Area (AMR), originally known as “Pago de los Arroyos”, is characterized by a distinctive hydrological system centered around the Paraná River, accompanied by various tributaries that shape a valuable diversity of landscapes. Over time, jurisdictional boundaries and urbanization processes have highlighted the need for an integrated approach to land management and planning to support both the protection and regeneration of rivers while fostering a renewed dialogue between the population and the urban fabric. Since its creation in 2010, ECOMR has promoted various strategies and guidelines to address the environmental system in a multiscale and coordinated manner, focusing on its fluvial components. Among its key actions are the development of a preliminary draft of the AMR Riverbanks, the formulation of Territorial Planning Guidelines (DOT), and the proposal of specific projects in each locality, incorporating citizen participation through Local Urban Plans (PUL) and Interjurisdictional Metropolitan Plans (PIM). The findings highlight how a coordinated and multiscale approach can strengthen the sustainability and resilience of fluvial landscape in metropolitan areas.
