Aniversarios no escritorio

At the office...

Débora, Valéria, Jaime and Fernando - the minds projeting...

People ask me if I work at all here in Brazil? How are my colleagues? How is the office? What do I do? I could make a whole report on our projects, but...no, I won't.

But what I can tell, is that the office is a warm and nice place to be. Truly agreable colleagues, the nicest one could dream of. Jaime, an inspiration and force of nature, arrives in the morning half dancing in the kitchen, embrassing us all as a grand-father and telling the last joke he heard, news that stroke him or project that inspired him... There is a genuine atmosphere of sharing and generosity. Well, tensions as well, but like in any place, in any family. Yeah, the office is like a big family.

And in families, we celebrate birthdays. So big party when two colleagues have their birthday!
Parabéns pra você goes the song...

Manoela and Cathy, the birthday girls

Birthday buffet!

Models at the office

Eloisa is an architect colleague, but also a student in clothes design. She is among the finalists of a competition for young Paranese designers - if I got it all right. Tuesday, suddenly pops in two elegant young people - in outfits slightly unusual. They are Eloisa's models. They are going to photo shoot at the office. Difficult to keep the focus on the work that afternoon...

Arquitetura e culinária

Quasi todas as veses que eu vou na cozinha, alguén está cozinhando. Geralmente está Valéria... Ontem estava chuvendo, então bolinho de chuva!

Sério, eu vou engordar aqui... Mas com coisas boas, porque os bolinhos de chuva com banana e canela - que delícia!

Valéria cozinhando

Meus colegas lunchendo...
De esquerdo à direita, Manoela, Felipe, Cathy, Ariadne, Fabi

Ah, e uma coisa mais... A hora do lunche é uma hora sagrada. As 5horas, mais o menos, as pessoas estão com fome, um pequeninho fome. Então é a hora do lunche. Muito brasileiro, muito legal e convivial!

PS. Sorry for those who don't speak Portuguese, but hey, google translate. I just needed to show off in my fantastic Portuguese - indeed today, I had almost one hour of conversation with two colleagues in Portuguese, and I was kind of speaking a lot! Not just listening as I have been till now, because of a poor ability to formulate myself quickly enough. I am so proud...

Lecture night at Jaime Lerner

Monday - I had to prepare a presentation of experiences and inspirations from my background, work and research, encompassing architectural and urban planning examples from Copenhagen mainly. Here I added some extras from Amsterdam and Brussels. A huge success! A got applause both before (as welcoming I think it was...yeah, Portuguese speech of Jaime, so you know I get bits and pieces) and after! And so many collueges coming to tell me how good and interesting it was, even an eye-opener on some aspects. They want to hear the details of some projects, my impressions of Curitiba, and oh yeah, hear about Christiania as well. Incredible how you always find people who know about Christiania, it is way underestimated the notoriety of this place. But then it is really great...

After my presentation, a bunch of three elder guys from the MPB (Musica Popular de Brasil) came to introduce us to some music about the city of Curitiba. One of them - Paulo Vitto, if I remember correctly his name - has lived here his whole life, and known Jaime during his terms as mayor and governor. He saw the changes undertaken in the city, its urban layout and spaces. And that was translated into songs with wonderful Brasilian tonalities. Paulo singing a light voice and another of the guys singing the deep voice, two guitars and off they went. What a night!

Wrapped up with snacks and champ'... 'Don't get used to this, Christina!' tells Ana - because since I have arrived we have had birthday, presentations and farewell gatherings.

Moving and working

Tuesday was moving day - still cold and humid. While I was waiting for Manuel to come home so I could move in I got into talk with the receptionist at the hotel. Funny guy - he complains about the lack of polite behaviour in Brasil and acts very arrogant. He was the one who was pissed at me one evening where I came home and was trying to talk Portuguese to me: 'I speak English you know, not the others, no one speaks English here but I do!' (in a very arrogant and unpleasant way). Anyway, he tells me about his experiences abroad and how he hates the place - guy, you are in the tourist business!

Manuel is back - I take a cab and here I am in my new home for the next two months. Manuel puts on music, we go grossery shopping, he cooks (at 11 p.m.!) and Jenny, the neighbour from downstairs drops by. She doesn't speak much English neither, so here we are pointing at stuff in the kitchen, and translating them in Portuguese and English.

Wednesday is my first real work day. Or not so real... I mean I am asked to prepared a presentation of my background, research and knowledge of Danish architecture and urban planning traditions and tendencies (with focus on energy, transportation and sustainability). Easy peasy - how I look forward to share all these stuff with them! I have wondered so much around in Copenhagen that it is a pleasure to just communicate my impressions. And it seems that the work and projects done in Amsterdam and in Aalborg interest them quite a bit and would be relevant for some of the projects.

The evening is Manuel's goodbye dinner, at a very nice Italian restaurant. Nice people, some I met before, some other new ones. All lovely, crazy, charming...wonderful! Leo, Mary, Louise, Pedro, Ryan...the other Pedro, Sheila... all great and fun.

Thursday and Friday... I just get to know better the people at the office, chatting over a coffee, asking what project they are working on, going for lunch. Cell phone numbers are exchanged and before going on weekend today, they made sure I had some to call in case of emergency, in case I am bored and have no plan. Well, plans were quickly and spontaneously made since Wednesday: Louise's party on Friday, Couch surfers' reunion and party on Saturday, and lecture and visit at the Curitibanese contribution to modernism - Casa Vilanove Artigas. I have the number to a guy who makes tourist tours on bike, between three and four hours in some districts of town. How could I ever get bored?


Ow, and I have a Jaime Lerner mail adress now! christina@jaimelerner.com Yay!

Jaime Lerner Instituto

So I will here take up my week experiences - which have been exciting, fulfilling and just great!

Monday - rainy weather and horribly cold! I was told that the days around that weekend, where I arrived to Curitiba, were some of the coldest of the year. Nice... Anyway, I had an appointment at Jaime Lerner's office for 3 p.m. The first part of the day was basically find money to pay my rent to Manuel (which I didn't because my card did not work - panic... it works now though), find a jumper because obviously I had decided that only one light woolen jumper would be enough and get pastils for my sore throat (in portuguese, not speaking portuguese - but I did it!)

Due to my inexperience in the Curitibanese transport system, I managed to arrive thirty minutes late at Jaime's. This bus system is of course very efficient and planned cleverly - obviously, it is the Curitibanese example of urban mass transportation and transit! But you can get in one ride far, far, far away from your destination. So here I am at 3 p.m. at the Center Civico, not that far from the office but still too far to walk. I hop into a cab - with gestures and three portuguese words I get him to the adress: Rua Bom Jesus 76 (to be pronounced '(h)ua bon jézus') I only pay 10 reals instead of 14, he gives me the number of his taxi driver son, who speaks apparently fluent English - sooo nice and helpful, again! I just keep getting touched by the people's generosity here. Despite their reputation to be as cold and unwelcoming as their weather, I have only seen their warm side.

Jaime Lerner Instituto is located in his old house, built when he finished his architecture studies. Today he has moved to an appartment in the next door building, an extension has been built to the house which now hosts his office. The first room I am introduced to is the kitchen - 'where we come when we don't want to work...' to use Jaime's words. This homy little room holds indeed much of the spirit of the place: there is always some one sitting reading the paper, drinking coffee or eating a snack, or Linda (the house responsible) who prepares coffes or food. Then I am shown around in the building and presented to each and every one of the colleagues and partners. I am introduced to the projects of the office and the methodology - Jaime explains in great lines some of the projects, among which I am likely to work on one especially.

Then the private secretary comes: 'Christina, come...cake!' It is Paulo's birthday (one of the partners) and there is hot dogs, cake and champagne! Food and a glass of something is of course always a good way to get to talk with others... The journey turns home then, not by bus - one of the other stagiaires gives me a lift.