Where to for Brazil's Cities? Citizen Empowerment or Global Marketing?

An awakening interest in public space in Brazilian cities is emphasising the value of existing civic areas. Guilherme Wisnik , a critic, curator and professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, looks at the history and potential future of Brazil's urban spaces. He highlights how despite the introduction of innovative Modernist design in the mid-20th century, which forged ‘a new relationship between architecture, urbanism and landscape design’, more recently the country's cities have been subject to the vicissitudes of market and political forces.     

Landscaping Brazil: The Legacy of Roberto Burle Marx

The Modernist landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx (1909–94) was a game changer, revolutionising the treatment of green space in Brazil. Here, architect Alexandre Hepner , co-founder of Estúdio ARKIZ, and Silvio Soares Macedo , a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, reflect on Burle Marx's enduring legacy.     

A City at Play: Rio de Janeiro on the Eve of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games

What will be the outcome of the large-scale construction programmes and under-delivered promises undertaken in preparation for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games? Ana Luiza Nobre , Associate Professor of Architectural History at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and Head of Research and Education at the Instituto Moreira Salles, gazes into her crystal ball and asks what the ongoing legacy of Rio 2016 might be.     

Curitiba Revisited: Five Decades of Transformation

Heralded worldwide as an exemplar of sustainable development, Curitiba now has a history of over half a century of enlightened urban planning. Curitiba born Maria do Rocio Rosário , who is the Head of the São Paulo-based Urban Development Strategies (UDS), reflects on whether Curitiba has actually delivered on its ambitious ideals and where the future challenges might lie for metropolitan integration.     

Linking the Formal and Informal: Favela Urbanisation and Social Housing in São Paulo

São Paulo is Brazil's largest city with over 20 million inhabitants, 14 per cent of which live in informal settlements. Here author, critic and editor Fernando Serapião describes various housing initiatives led by Elisabete França during her two stints at the city's Secretaria de Habitação (SEHAB – Housing Secretariat), which employed design as a tool to upgrade and more fully integrate the city's favelas in the formal city.     

Dissatisfied São Paulo

São Paulo is a city of voracious appetites: insatiable in its desire for development and transformation, having swallowed up a population of some 20 million. Could it, however, be approaching a moment of reflection and repose? Architect and writer Francesco Perrotta-Bosch describes how a new development plan, the Plano Diretor, is enabling the city to take stock.     

Shear Creep Deformation of the Super Alloy Single Crystal CMSX‐4 at High Temperatures and Low Stresses

In the present paper we investigate the shear creep behavior of the single crystal super alloy CMSX‐4 at temperatures between 950 and 1100 °C and shear stresses ranging from 80 to 155 MPa. A double shear creep test technique is used to study the shear creep behavior of four specific macroscopic crystallographic shear systems defined by a specific crystallographic shear plane and a specific crystallographic shear direction (systems investigated: {001}<110>, {100}<010>, {011}<01‐1>, and {111}<01‐1>). The shear creep behavior is analyzed in terms of the shape of individual creep curves and in terms of the stress and the temperature dependence of the secondary shear creep rate. Individual creep curves are generally characterized by a pronounced primary creep range where creep rates decrease by up to three orders of magnitude. A sharp creep rate minimum is not observed. The secondary creep range starts at shear stresses of the order of 0.02 and is followed by a secondary creep range which extends over shear strain ranges of the order of 0.1. No pronounced increase of shear creep rate in the later stages of creep is observed. Norton plots yield power law stress exponents ranging from 5.5 to 9.7. The temperature dependence of the secondary creep rate is of an Arrhenius type and apparent activation energies between 549 and 690 kJ/mol were found. There is a clear influence of crystallography on shear creep rates, which vary between different macroscopic crystallographic shear systems; this effect decreases with increasing temperature. The shear creep results obtained in the present study are discussed in the light of results from uniaxial testing and in the light of underlying microscopic deformation processes.