AA Environment and Technical (ETS) Studies Tutor Joana Goncalves has received funding by the Royal Society to develop research towards climate resilient design for the slums of São Paulo, in Brazil. Gonclaves’ research investigates data driven redesign for urban climate adaptation in Brazilian informal settlements (DDRUCABI), namely the case study of favela São Remo in São Paulo. This is a 3-year partnership between the Bartlett School of Energy, Environment and Resources at University College London, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo and the Architectural Association (AA), funded by Royal Society International Science Partnerships Fund International Collaboration Award.

The research activities will include data collection about the environmental conditions, including temperature and other climatic variables, as well as the social and physical context, to understand the various degrees of environmental risk in this specific built environment and why; the implemention of participatory processes recruiting and training community design champions who will work with the project team to design adaptation measures which community members can implement themselves; the performance of analytical testing of the design adaptation measures to show the potential impact across the whole community, by means of a detailed computer simulation model of the self-built vulnerable neighbourhood.

The project will directly benefit favela residents in São Paulo and the learning from this project will also be replicable to other informal settlements of similar physical features and climatic conditions across Latin America. In April 2025, the researchers from the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and the AA will meet with their counterparts from the University of São Paulo, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo e de Design da USP (FAUUSP), for a week of research activities in São Paulo, including visits to the case-study area, meetings with agents from the local community and seminars of knowledge exchange between the team members and peers from other knowledge fields related to the complexities and of living in the favela. These events will be open to the FAUUSP community.

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