SwB UK Ambassador of 2015 - Personal Statement

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Everywhere we go, everywhere we look, Architecture is all around us. Sometimes it is hard to notice how the influence of Architecture weighs in our lives, yet we have to admit how pleasant is to walk along a path with great public illumination, with an amount of trees that provide shade and cooling air, with some benches to rest, with minimal trashcans every each block… Yes, we are still talking about Architecture, which can be defined as the creation of spaces with function, structure and beauty and when combined with urban planning, these three premises and the study of immediate surroundings can also create spaces, however, non-built ones. During the summer of 2013, I was involved in a research project called ‘The Walk Work, Along the City of London Fringe’, taught by the professor Christoph Hadrys, at the University of East London with more four Science without Borders students. The research consisted on an investigation and analyse of a defined route along the City of London that sought to enhance our perceptive analysis of urban space trying to focus on the architectural quality that drew the most attention on us, in order to be able to make a more thorough study of it. Accordingly, the research was divided on three parts. The first one consisted on the proper walking through the area. Along the walking, the tutor highlighted all the important facts that, especially for the area, contributed on its development and evolution throughout the years. On each stop made, we could learn a little bit more about London history and understand how on one small defined route we could find so many different qualified examples of architecture of distinct periods and appreciate how all this mixed area could influence on our perceptive of the space. After finishing the first walk, we could understand the urban and constructed spaces of the route and we were asked to be aware of the spaces and buildings, which caught our eyes the most. Therefore, on the other meeting we brought notes and explained why we have chosen them. Each student chose five to six topics to work thoroughly, which were polished during the tutorials, where we discussed and drew our own analyses based on our preview knowledge of Architecture and this was what defined the second part of the work. The last and final part of the Walk Work was to compile all the team items on

one

small

guidebook,

which

can

be

seen

on

the

following

link:

http://issuu.com/brunapasquali/docs/summer_placement_final. Back to Brazil, I returned to work as an intern on the same office I have been working on since 2011, which is called Edson Marchioro Arquitetura, Urbanismo e Engenharia S/S. The main work there is the development of Mobility Urban Plans for any city in Brazil, which may include the following projects: Universal Sidewalk, Cycling Routes, Critical Points, Urban Transportation and Tourist Signaling. (Check the Mobility Urban Plan for the city of Vila Flores I developed after I got back from SwB on the following link: http://issuu.com/brunapasquali).


Although I have been working for a long time with mobility and urban planning at Caxias do Sul, it was notable on my time in London and on the summer placement that I described, that the Brazilian cities have lack of preoccupation with the pedestrians. This fact is changing a bit by now, but when you live for a year in a city like London, where the transportation (metro, buses, cycling routes) work together to build a system that can improve the life of the people who lives there and also facilitate the tour of any tourist, not only by the many viable ways of locomotion, but by all the signaling directed for the pedestrians and by creating accessible sidewalks for everybody, you may feel not really welcome on your on city. Where I work by now we try to create specific guidelines for each city we study, because each one is different from another, although they need to follow some global suggestions to preserve the pedestrians atmosphere. It is needed to create not only beautiful sidewalks, but also accessible and universal paths, where anybody with any disability could go by their own and this is one of the main goals of the office. Furthermore, we encourage the use of public transportation and bicycles, not only to reduce pollution, but to reduce the chaos on that is the road system and this was one thing that really captivated me by living in London. To sum up, my year abroad plus my summer project and what I do where I work now, it helped me not only to understand how we must value the pedestrians on the urban planning of the cities, but also the chance of studying in one well-recognised university from the United Kingdom is more than a life changing experience, is where you are able to see what is working well on the other city so then you can apply that to your birth one.


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