“Envisioning Future Green Cities: The Environment-Culture-Technology Nexus”

It is a £9000 GCRF Funded workshop by the University of Portsmouth GCRF Fund. In collaboration with University of Brasilia, this funds aims to Establish a research network under the title of Envisioning Future Green Cities: The Environment-Culture-Technology Nexus. The project is nested under the UN SDG 11 ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’ and seeks to support capacity building in the area of sustainable urbanisation in Brazil. By linking environment, culture and technology in the articulation of solutions and visions for the future of cities in Brazil and the UK, the proposal considers that interdisciplinary and systemic thinking are crucial for the creation of more sustainable, resilient, equitable and vibrant urban environment where residents’ identity, memory and wellbeing are essential principles.

1. Capacity Building
- A mix of senior and junior researchers were involved, in order to promote exchanges of experience and capacity building for ECRs.
- PhD students from the Universidade de Brasilia were involved, and we also had participants who were completing their doctorates.
- Fabiano Lemes, Tarek Teba and Prof. Maria do Carmo Bezerra gave keynote presentations which were inspirational to young scholars and that would support the development of their careers (i.e. bid-writing, funding schemes, professional progression etc)
2. Interdisciplinary and collaborative
Scholars involved came from various research backgrounds, including cultural preservation, architecture and urbanism, computational design, green infrastructure, landscape architecture, environmental design, etc.
3. Generating impact from the research
As part of the workshop the group undertook a site visit to a problematic area called ARIE JK, near Brasilia, which presents socio-ecological issues. It is representative of the challenges Brazilian and other Global South cities face. The group used it as a testing ground to develop ideas for future projects.

The project laid the foundations for future GCRF related projects, now with a wide network including Brazilian scholars. The work focused on three potential projects which are now in development which aims to target Newton Fund, GCRF and other related funding streams in Brazil.

The workshop developed activities around three main themes for future development – environmental fragility; social inequality; and urban culture, modes of housing and perception of nature. These are not only challenges in Brasilia, but can be seen across Brazil and in other countries in the Global South. Projects will include non-academic partners and embed policies and other strategies for generating local and global impact.

Expected benefits are centred on the interconnections of environmental resilience, social equality and a positive urban culture which would be targets for future projects which will include strategies for the promotion of socio-economic and environmental benefits to urban areas.