Brazil

New public space has opened in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in an unlikely place. The new park sits a few feet above the contaminated grounds of a deactivated municipal incinerator.

August 4, 2009 - Metropolis

It's going to cost Brazil more than $42 billion in infrastructure costs to host the 2014 soccer World Cup, according to a recent report.

July 24, 2009 - Associated Press

The Brazilian government has just approved a measure that would grants legal land rights to squatters in the Amazon.

June 28, 2009 - Guardian

Whether you've realized it yet or not, soccer is a big deal in this gloabalizing world. And every four years it's a huge deal for one country: the host of the FIFA World Cup. All eyes are on the host country for the 32-team tournament, which is the most-watched sporting event in the world. And though showtime is just one month long, the host spends years vying, preparing and investing for the tournament. It has major potential to spur broad countrywide improvements and economic development. So when the U.S. made news recently by offering forth 70 stadia as possible host sites for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup (along with a reputation booster from President Barack Obama), I had to filter out my national pride. Sure, the U.S. would make a good and clearly able host for the event, but it seems that the potential of the World Cup could be better directed towards a country that really needs large-scale civic improvement and investment.

April 16, 2009 - Nate Berg

Taking a hint from heightened interest in Brazil's favelas, a German developer plans to build 10 villas in a Rio de Janeiro slum, which he'll market as the new tourist hotspot.

March 18, 2009 - International Herald Tribune

A new plan is taking form in Brazil to regularize titles to rainforest land -- an effort the government hopes will fight deforestation.

February 28, 2009 - The Economist

Landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, featured in a new exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, used the principles of cubism and abstraction to create modern landscapes using native tropical plants.

January 23, 2009 - The New York Times

Protecting the poor and protecting the environment are two areas we haven’t quite figured out yet. Put them together, and we’re really up a creek. And we are, because these two silos are actually linked very closely. The relationship between poverty and environmental degradation is incredibly complex, but you wouldn’t guess it by looking at some recent policies gathering support out there in the world. Solutions, it would seem, are incredibly simple. But most of these ideas, though well-intentioned, address only one side of the poverty-environment relationship -- and really hurt the other.

January 8, 2009 - Nate Berg

As construction begins on two large dams in the Amazon, thousands of indigenous people grapple with the prospect of the coming flood and the loss of their land, while environmentalists continue to oppose the construction.

October 17, 2008 - The Washington Post

Anthropologists have discovered traces of highly organized and gridded cities in the Amazon rainforest dating back to the 1200s.

August 31, 2008 - National Geographic

As part of a new strategy to prevent deforestation in the Amazon, government officials in Brazil have begun seizing livestock that graze on illegal ranches.

June 28, 2008 - The New York Times

The Atlantic Monthly reviews a new book on architect Oscar Niemeyer and his work that- like the infamous city of Brasilia- "continues to enchant and appall students of architecture and urban planning."

June 15, 2008 - The Atlantic Monthly

Understanding and improving the Brazilian informal settlements known as favelas will require more information about the slums -- especially in the field of mapping.

May 24, 2008 - Harvard Design Magazine

A group of Indians from the Amazon attacked a government engineer at a recent meeting where he was discussing a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River that could displace 15,000 indigenous people and destroy traditional fishing grounds.

May 23, 2008 - Associated Press via National Geographic

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, planners are challenged with untangling traffic jams that stretch for over 120 miles.

April 19, 2008 - International Herald Tribune

By focusing on certain "pressure points" in urban areas, a city can dramatically increase its quality of life, argues Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil.

January 30, 2007 - WorldChanging