BRAZIL URBAN DESIGN

The fifth largest population in the world, Brazil is a diverse and varied country both geographically and culturally. Many aspects of brazilian culture are iconic and are recognised internationally round the world - copacabana beach, the favela, soccer and samba. With over 80 per cent of the population living in urban areas, many cities face significant challenges - such as transport or housing - yet it is this concentration of people in urban environments that makes Brazil so fascinating.

 

Brazil Urban Design Study or BUDS 2015 is a group comprised of undergraduate, masters and PHD students from Oxford Brookes University - Planning Department - with the aims of studying the urban design qualities found in the different cities of Brazil. In addition to a series of fund raising events, we were fortunate enought to recieve a sum of funding from Santander's International Scholarship scheme and were able to visit Brazil in April, 2015. Over the course of 18 days the group visited Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Porto Alegre and Pelotas among many other destinations, studying these different urban environments. In these locations the group also visted several planning departments, carried out international consultancy work and deliver a week long Design Codong workshop with Brazilian students studying at the Pelotas Federal Univeristy.   

 

During my time in Brazil I undertook an individual study project which aims to analyse the influence of urban form on Townscape, a urban design priciple first devised by Gordon Cullen. Studying three disctinct urban forms I shall compare the townscapes of these different location. The findings of this analysis are presented in this website.