Notes on urbanism, public instruments and territory. By Nikola Arsenic.
A pier with restaurants, shops and a deck is not a building by the sea, it is a destination. And a destination attracts the private investment that would not have come before, justifies the infrastructure that had been stalled for years, and changes the working year of the people who live in the town.
A large-scale development does not follow the growth of the city, it decides where that growth goes. What the Constitution and the Tax Code have called the benefited zone and the increase in value since 1966, the extreme case of the coastal city and the waterfront, and the six questions for anyone allocating capital around an anchor.
Arts. 36, 37 and 38 of the Statute of the City in their literal wording: the seven minimum questions, the 2024 amendment that replaced traffic generation with urban mobility, and why the EIV does not replace the EIA.
A designation of origin was created for a territory no one has measured. Wine is not the business: it is the anchor that turns a farm into a destination. Six criteria for reading the suitability of your land.
A January 2026 law named an entire wine region in the serra fluminense, just across the border from the Zona da Mata. A designation of origin protects a name; hillside architecture is what makes the visitor drive up the serra again.
Every neighborhood has the spot no one shows a visitor. A field guide to the points of shame of the city, the vacant lot, the underpass, the dead square, the roundabout, the creek bank and the blind wall, and what reverts each one: the point of shame is not born dangerous, it is born without design.
Safety comes from presence, not from walls or cameras. How quality public space sustains eyes on the street outside business hours, with mixed use, inclusion, and the right density.
The concept and execution of mixed use in one guide: the definition in the building and the neighborhood, the 15-minute city, the active ground floor, the calibrated mix, conflicts resolved in design, and rules that allow the mix.
The 20th-century separation of uses and the bill it charged. From Euclid (1926) to the Athens Charter, from Jane Jacobs to the 15-minute city: why the pendulum swung back to the mixture.
How the City Statute forces idle land to fulfill a social function: compulsory subdivision, progressive property tax over time, and expropriation with public debt bonds, with the literal text of the law.
Why turning a farm into a destination (culture, hospitality, facilities) captures more value than subdividing it into a luxury rural gated community. Real archetypes in Brazil.
Article 35 of the City Statute, translated. How the building potential of a landmarked or donated property leaves it and reappears on another lot, how it differs from the onerous concession and the CEPAC, and where it already works (Curitiba and São Paulo).
CEPAC, art. 34 of the City Statute, translated. What it is, how the municipality issues it, why the CVM regulates it, how the investor buys it, and how the certificate becomes the right to build.
Onerous concession of the right to build, arts. 28 to 31 of the City Statute, translated. What it is, how the master plan enables it, the role of specific municipal law, and why so many Brazilian cities charge zero.
Law 6.766/79, Forest Code and Reurb. On serrano land, each one extends its reach over the parcel. When one ruler is ignored, another sends the bill.
Concession, privatization and PPP are three distinct things. Real cases (Belo Horizonte 2016, Aracaju, Feira de Santana and Franco da Rocha 2020, Hospital do Subúrbio 2010) and the 5% NCR ceiling.
Municipal Law 7.167/2014 missed its decennial deadline in March 2024. Without an updated Master Plan, several urban planning instruments lose leverage.
In Petrópolis, irregular occupation grew 107% between 1985 and 2020, according to MapBiomas. Every new house outside the plan is a deferred public expense.
FINISA, BNDES, IDB, World Bank, Transferegov, OODC, Ecological ICMS, royalties, FEP Caixa. How a mid-size city combines sources to unlock urban projects.
Before drawing, listen. The technical reading that precedes the commercial reading is what separates those who design on the serra from those who design with the serra.
PIU, AIU and OUC are the three acronyms that structure every large-scale urban transformation in Brazil. Understand what each means, why the order matters and how the market, the public authority and the architect position themselves at each stage.
PIU, AIU and OUC: what each acronym means, in which law it is anchored, and why the PIU plus AIU pair is São Paulo-specific while the OUC is a federal instrument of the City Statute.