The Emergence of Collectives of Architects

Abstract

Although it did not achieve all the intended objectives, the #OcupeEstelita movement left a significant legacy in Recife, Brazil, including the relatively unnoticed inspiration for young architects to organize themselves into urban collectives. These groups sought to explore new forms of action and new territories through emerging collaborative practices such as tactical urbanism. The impact of these collectives’ work led to the integration of their methods and members into municipal institutional projects, such as Projeto Parque Capibaribe (PPC) and Mais Vida nos Morros (MVNM). Through interviews with members of local collectives who later became involved in the mentioned institutional projects, we can assess the motivations, conditions, limitations, and challenges of collaborative practices, as well as the risk of distortion of these emerging practices in addressing the severe infrastructure and urban maintenance deficiencies that characterize Recife.