Mundus Mound

These were my boards for submission into the ACSA Steel Competition for 2008. It was in the spring semester of 2008 that I became interested in regionalist and incremental approaches to architecture thanks to my studio with Prof. Bennett and my seminar with Prof. Bechhoeffer.































Months later I have been finding images in Brazil of similar cases of what I proposed a year ago. This is the Edifício São Vito in São Paulo, Brazil:

Images of IAPI and Vila dos Comerciarios

The Instituto de Aposentadorias e Pensões dos Industriários (IAPI) was built in 1936 during the "Estado Novo", headed by Getulio Vargas with similar ideals as the "New Deal". There are IAPI's in several Brazilian cities, all built as "cidades jardins", much like garden cities in the United States such as Greenbelt, MD. The IAPI is now a neighborhood in Porto Alegre since it has been surrounded by development.

The most striking difference between IAPI and Greenbelt is the preservation of the place. Architects in Brazil are constantly enfuriated by the "discharacterization" of planned towns, they complain about the modifications to the buildings, the landscapes, and the building uses. On the other hand, the inhabiting of these places and gradual modifications and marks left by its residents adds an incredible amount of character and physical layers of history. My impression of IAPI is that even an iron-fist home-owner's association could not have prevented the incremental changes of the neighborhood.



An aerial photo of the IAPI

Images of Rio Grande

The city of Rio Grande is in the souteast tip of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is home to the second largest port in Brazil, behind Santos. It has just been given an enormous investment by the government to expand the superport. With the speculated tripling of the port, the housing market in the city has boomed, although in the very lowest class of dwellings. The city contrasts a rich tradition of colonial and eclectic Portuguese architecture with the gritty industrialized superport development. Here are images from the downtown area, the housing projects in the outskirts, and the summer beach town next door.

Disney's Pampas

In the 1940s, Walt Disney released several short films and cartoons of travels through South America packaged as Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944). Through the two movies, Disney portrayed pieces of the pampas and life in the Platine regions of South America. Here are some clips from those movies. Please email me if the clips are taken off the server.

The Argentine Pampas


Goofy the Gaucho


Stereotypical Rio

Targets of Development

This is a set of diagrams translated from Victor Pelli's book Habitar, Participar, Pertenecer. They compare two strategies in creating targets for development in socioeconomic levels, primarily in developing countries. I am interested in developing the second proposal as an alternative to the singular target convention of the first diagram.


The incremental approach is more adapt to my architectural and tectonic goals of my thesis. The possibility of individuals gradually and independently improving their living conditions is the ultimate target for my research.