homeroom

In August Silvia and Axel went to Brazil to research the historic urbanism of the Portuguese foundations along the Atlantic coast. Silvia had won a travel grant in Portugal and Axel was accompanying her. They (we) saw Natal, Olinda, Racife, Salvador, Brasilia, Victoria, Santos and Rio de Janeiro. The cities were all founded in different urban forms. The urban logics were strategic to the colonizers need and primarily following the demands of accessibility, defense, portable water and agriculture.

Upon researching the history of the urbanism we also came across the bigger picture of Portuguese colonization and thereby unexpectedly the history of sugar and its production. Trip was really revealing on many levels and Axel still needs to write down his enlightening insights about the smart assemblages that created the Portuguese short success story. Silvia already did a blog of the trip, unfortunately only in Portuguese: Premio Tavora Blog

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