To discuss the effects of the tragedy, which extends not only to environmental issues, IEA's São Carlos Center will hold the debate The Doce River Valley: a Disaster in Progress on March 31, at 7.00 pm. The event will bring together four panelists and a moderator with different experiences on the subject. The event will be broadcast live on the web.

Marcelo Tramontano and Luciano Costa, both professors at the USP's Institute of Architecture and Urbanism (IAU), will discuss the experience of traveling through affected areas. Tramontano took about ten days to travel from Mariana, in the State of Minas Gerais, until Linhares, in the State of Espírito Santo, where the mouth of Doce River is located. He has also visited the ports where the ore is shipped abroad: Camburi, in Vitória (the capital of Espírito Santo), where trains arrive after leaving the Doce River Valley; and Ubu, in the municipality of Anchieta, end point of the pipeline that brings the ore directly from Mariana.

During his trip, Tramontano interviewed experts, activists, politicians, researchers, environmentalists, and the inhabitants of the region, such as indians, people in riverine settlements and traders. The footage will be used in order to produce a documentary. "The disaster brought the serious problems generated by mining activities to light, an issue that is not restricted to Mariana. All populations throughout the Doce River to the sea, including fauna and flora, are in jeorpardy," said Tramontano.

Costa gave priority to small cities and local roads, trying to be as close to the Doce River and its tributaries as he could. Working with Rafael Lazzarotto Simioni, a professor at the Faculty of Law of Southern Minas Gerais (MSDS) and at the University of the Sapucaí Valley (UNIVÁS), he has visited two districts that have been completely destroyed by the mud (Camargos and Paracatu de Baixo), and further municipalities on the way to Linhares.

"Through the photographs that have been taken, our perspective is to bring a set of impressions on the local culture, on the Doce River Valley and on the economic corporations operating in the region beyond the disaster. The 'mud', in my view, has allowed the restoration of a forgotten link between the economic corporations and the geographical space that the Valley is, often treated only as a resource," said Costa.

Professor Reinaldo Duque Brasil, from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), had a close experience with the problem. Besides being an expert in the Doce River Basin, he teaches at the UFJF campus of Governador Valadares, one of the cities that have suspended the water supply because of the contamination.

The group of debaters will be completed by Eduardo Mario Mendiondo, a professor at the USP's School of Engineering in São Carlos (EESC-USP), and general coordinator of the National Center for Monitoring and Natural Disaster Alerts of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (CEMADEN / MCTI). The moderator will be Marcel Fantin, a professor at the IAU and author of Agregados Minerais, Meio Ambiente e Urbanização na Perspectiva das Políticas Públicas Canadenses: Províncias de Ontário e Québec ("Mineral Aggregates, Environment and Urbanization in the Perspective of the Canadian Public Policy: Provinces of Ontario and Québec"), a book on Canadian public policy that addresses mineral aggregates and the insertion of the mining sector in the process of environmental, urban and regional planning.

The event is supported by the IAU and will be held in the Jorge Caron Auditorium on the USP's campus 1 in São Carlos.

The event, organized by professor David Sperling, from the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism (IAU) of the University of São Paulo in São Carlos, marks the beginning of activities pertaining to “Fabrication” at the IEA São Carlos. The aim is to draw together research studies on the potentialities and challenges that arise from “fabrication” in today’s technological environment, permeated by processes that are increasingly mediated and controlled numerically. This is a national ongoing discussion that will address various areas of knowledge, including architecture, engineering, computing, physics and chemistry.

Over the course of two days, the conference will bring together professors and researchers from various institutions, including USP, Unicamp, Embrapa and the Renato Archer Information Technology Center. The opening will be attended by Martin Grossmann, IEA director, and Renato Anelli, coordinator of the IEA São Carlos,

Exhibit

As part of the symposium, the exhibition Homo Faber: Digital Fabrication in Latin America will open on October 14, from 5:00 pm, at the USP São Carlos Cultural Center. São Carlos will be the first city to host the traveling version of the exhibit, which was first presented in July in São Paulo, during the XVI CAAD Futures Congress, and will now travel around South America.

The exhibition features an unprecedented mapping of digital fabrication in the field of architecture in Latin America, with an overview of what 25 university laboratories, research groups, architecture studios and independent actions are investigating and producing in the area. Articulated under the premise that fabrication informs matter, the works comprise a vast array of interests and means, as well as openness to experimentation in processes and results.

Curated by professors David Sperling, from IAU-USP, and Pablo Herrera, from the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, the exhibit will remain open at the Cultural Center until November 13, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm.