Adil's Shortcuts: DNA of São Paulo

Friday, February 21, 2025

DNA of São Paulo

Up next on The DNA of Cities podcast, we ask, what makes São Paulo, São Paulo?

This is a city of 12 million people and the nucleus of a metropolitan region of over 20 million people in a macro-metropolitan region of over 30 million people. A city this large is impossible to imagine all at once and certainly defies any attempts at simple description.

So, we were honoured to be joined by a brilliant group of esteemed local experts to help decode the traits and characteristics of this irreducibly plural city. Our very warm thanks goes to:

👉 Mariana Barros is the Founding Partner of Cidades 21, a communications agency specialising in urban issues and developing content strategies for businesses in real estate, architecture and design.

👉 Claudio Bernardes is the President of real estate firm Ingaí Incorporadora S/A, a real estate firm based in São Paulo that has been operating for over 70 years.

👉 Miguel Luiz Bucalem is a Professor at Escola Politécnica da USP. Miguel has held several roles in public offices in São Paulo, including former appointments as the Head of the Technical Advisory Board for Urban Planning and as the Municipal Secretary for Urban Development.

👉 felipe correa is a renowned architect and urbanist based in New York City. He is the founder of Somatic Collaborative, a design and research practice and he is the Director of the Urban Prosperity Institute. Felipe is the editor of ‘São Paulo: A Graphic Biography’ (2018) which brings together extensive research, archival material, photographs and architectural drawings in its exploration of the city's extensive urbanisation.

👉 Regina Meyer is a Professor in the FAU USP - Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo / USP - Universidade de São Paulo. She is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and books on São Paulo, including ‘São Paulo Metropole’ (2004) which explores the transformations that the city has experienced since the 1980s.