VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities
Abstract
Fragmented municipal structures, overlapping initiatives, and territorial blind spots disclose the lack of coordination and integration between secretariats, as a critical governance gap to design and implement neighbourhood scale planning. Neighbourhoods represent promising units for urban planning and management, connecting public administration with communities to address urban issues more efficiently and effectively, ultimately improving residents’ quality of life. Institutional articulation is a crucial tool for advancing neighbourhood plans, relying on the active participation of municipal staff to design the grounding processes in institutional knowledge, administrative feasibility, and coordinated cross-sectoral action. Within the scope of a research project on neighbourhood-scale planning in the Municipality of São Paulo, two workshops were conducted with different secretariats staff. The first aimed to map existing plans, programs, and actions to assess the degree of integration across thematic areas. The second focused on developing practical guidelines, emphasising the institutional arrangements needed for inter-secretariat collaboration. Both workshops adopted a collaborative approach that captured experiences from ongoing plans and projects,the potential for making neighborhood plans viable, revealing overlaps, gaps, and opportunities in municipality coordination. This paper examines the outcomes of both workshops through the lens of institutional relationships, highlighting areas of alignment and persistent gaps, to identify convergent visions and actions to development and implementation of neighborhood plans in the city of Sao Paulo. The expected outcome is twofold: to better understand the existing institutional relationships and the gaps, and to propose ways to improve collaboration among secretariats, enhancing more coordinated, effective, and expertise-driven neighbourhood planning.
Aida Paula Pontes de Aquino – Architect and urban planner (UFPB, 2004), with a master’s degree in Urban Engineering (UFPB, 2007) and a PhD in Urban Planning from Eindhoven University of Technology (2018). Currently postdoctoral researcher at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), focusing on neighbourhood planning. She has experience with master plans, urban design, public sector planning, and academic teaching. Since 2014, she has held leadership roles at the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB).
Deiny Façanha Costa – Urban researcher based in São Paulo – Brazil, currently a Technical Training Researcher 4A FAPESP at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (EPUSP). Master (2024) in Urban and Regional Planning at Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism in University of São Paulo (FAU-USP) and specialist in Urban Mobility from Escola da Cidade (2020).
Emílio Bertholdo – Ph.D candidate in Urban Engineering at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), also works as a researcher on the FAPESP Public Policy Research Program project “Development of an instrument to support and promote the development of neighborhood plans in the city of São Paulo”, in the Public Policy Research Program of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
Ana Luiza Aun Al Makul – Architect and Urban Planner graduated from USP Currently, at Sp-Urbanismo contributing to the development of Urban Intervention Plans, provides advisory services for strategic projects
Rafael Barreto Castelo da Cruz – Director of the Development Directorate at SP Urbanismo. A civil engineer with multiple postgraduate degrees and a PhD from POLI-USP, he is a professor and researcher focused on urban infrastructure, mobility, sustainable neighbourhoods, and participatory planning methods in partnership with the University of São Paulo.
Karin Regina de Castro Marins – Associate Professor at the Polytechnic School of USP in the field of urban planning and urban engineering. Bachelors and PhD. in architecture and urban planning (FAU USP, Brazil), Ms. in environmental management (School of Public Health, USP). MSc. in sustainable energy engineering (KTH, Sweden. Fulbright postdoctoral fellow and visiting professor at the Chair of Global Cities at the City University of New York. Coordinator of the research project “Development of an instrument to support and promote the development of neighborhood plans in the city of São Paulo”, in the Public Policy Research Program of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Wednesday 17th June, 2026