Una finestra sulle città del Brasile. Quando i cambiamenti sono evidenti sotto gli occhi / A window on Brazilian Cities. When Changes are Evident to the Eyes / Uma janela sobre as cidades do Brasil. Quando as alterações são evidentes

The article presents “A window on Brazilian Cities”, the new column of “Planum. The Journal of Urbanism”, written in three languages. By 2004, already 82% of the Brazilian population lived in cities and metropolis. The aim of the column is to draw Eurocentric attention to the largely unknown Brazilian cities and territories, as well as their planning instruments. The attitude followed by the article is the one of an explorer interested in learning, and maybe live and revive the literature on Brazilian city and metropolis, first, through a short description and some images of the fifteen years of the rapid and essential transformation of morphology and urban tissue of the city of Saõ Luiz. Secondly, I suggest a new interpretative framework moving beyond commonplaces in literature and common thought, grounded on juxtaposed poles as places of high inequalities, in resources, quality of life and socio-economic conditions. I propose to pay attention to the change and variety of the substantial intermediate phenomena of the socio-economic and spatial transformations.