From close up and within is a series of workshops that aim to analyze the urban dynamics of different neighborhoods through the practice of collective mapping carried out by the activitie’s participants. During the process, the research methods combined interviews, participant observation, photography, video, cartography, illustration and collages.
       In the first edition, held at the UFMG School of Architecture, students from various Architecture and Urban Planning courses in Belo Horizonte investigated the surroundings of the UFMG School of Architecture. In the second and third editions, Architecture and Urban Planning students at PUC Minas investigated Belo Horizonte’s central area.
       The fourth edition of the workshop was held at the Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil in early 2019 in the city of São Paulo. This edition brought together a very diverse group of participants, which gave Micrópolis the opportunity to work not only with architects and designers, but also with geographers, occupational therapists and journalists, and the research themes were a direct reflection of such diversity.
       The resulting mappings, which investigated the neighborhood where the institution is located, were: Political guide of the graphic voice of the streets (mapping of the diversity of languages and political motivations of urban art in downtown São Paulo), Permeability of the facades (a study of the levels of permeability between private and public spaces in the region), Who eats here? (mapping of the price range of meals in the surroundings), Hipster takeover (mapping of the advance of hipster establishments in the streets of Santa Cecília), Guide to accessible pleasure (mapping of the attitudinal accessibility of motels in downtown São Paulo) and A city transformed into sounds and words (mapping of everyday life through sounds and words captured on the streets).

    To view the results of the workshops, click here.