Alete Ramos de Oliveira was born in Maceió, Brazil in 1939. She undertook her undergraduate architecture training at the Escola de Belas Artes de Pernambuco (EBAP) in Brazil, from 1959 to 1963, where she took an early interest in urbanism and, over her career, grew to be part of a generation of women planners in northeastern Brazil who worked on research on urbanization, the promotion of high quality housing, and of socio-economic development. Upon graduating from EBAP, she worked as an intern at the Brazilian government agency, Sudene (Superintendency for the Development of the Northeast) before obtaining additional training in France in 1965-66. On her return to Brazil, she was employed by COHEBE (Boa Esperança Hydroelectric Company) who were at that time engaged in removing parts of the old town and planning for a new city in Nova Iorque, Maranhão. A few years later, she obtained a scholarship and joined the Architectural Association, London, where she was based at the Department of Planning and Urban Design and concurrently gained a post-graduate Diploma from the Department of Tropical Architecture in 1970. Upon her return to COHEBE, in the early 1970s, Alete led the team to design Nova Iorque, working with sociologists and basing it upon vernacular typologies, construction methods, and the formal language taken from the existing fabric – including houses typologies with a courtyard and the use of materials such as brick and wood. The team maintained the existing central church square as a central node in the new city. Later, she was also invited to set up a postgraduate program in urban planning, together with a team of twelve professors, including two Americans but pressure from the military meant that the program was suddenly closed down. Alete then joined the planner Ricardo Pontual,  working for the urban development section of the Banco Nacional da Habitacao, and became engaged in infrastructure projects and the study of real estate speculation in priority urbanization areas, some of which in Peru.

Sources:

• Architectural Association Diploma Roll Book, 1964-1975, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• “Arquitextos 271.01 Gênero e Arquitetura.” Vitruvius. Accessed October 24, 2024. https://vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/arquitextos/23.271/8682.
• Naslavsky Guilah, Valenca Maria Luiza Rocha Mariz. “AS “OUTRAS” DO OUTRO”: PIONEIRAS ARQUITETAS NO NORDESTE BRASILEIRO: MIGRAÇÕES, GÊNERO E REGIONALISMO.” 2019. Docomomobrasil. https://docomomobrasil.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/119261.pdf, Accessed October 24, 2024.