Brandon Donnelly

Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

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Tag: brazil

  • Branded residences are a luxury good

    Elevate Miami, which I wrote about last month, just announced a number of new speakers and, more specifically, a number of new high-rise development projects that will be discussed at the conference. They are (not an exhaustive list):

    • Dolce & Gabbana Residences, Miami
    • Mercedes-Benz Places, Miami
    • Aman and One High Line Residences, New York
    • Indian Creek Residences & Yacht Club, Miami Beach
    • Edition Residences, Miami
    • AGE360, Curitiba, Brazil

    What should be clear from this list is that Miami is like a different planet. It is one of the places where the richest people in the world go to spend their money, much of it on real estate. Because of this, you can think of this real estate as a luxury good, which is why so many of them are now branded.

    In economic terms, a luxury good is typically defined as a good where demand increases — more than what is proportional — as incomes rise. For example, if a person’s income goes up by 1%, but their demand for a particular thing goes up by 5%, then this thing would be considered a “luxury good,” as opposed to a “normal good.”

    The technical definition is an income elasticity of demand that is greater than 1. More simply, this just means that as someone starts making more money, they will start spending a greater percentage of their income on luxury goods. This is in contrast to “necessity goods,” where it doesn’t matter how much money you make, you only need so much toilet paper, for example.

    What all of this suggests is that as people from all over the world get rich, they are likely to want more branded residences in a place like Miami. However, the flip side of this dynamic is that as incomes fall, the demand for luxury goods should, in theory, also fall more than what is proportional. It works both ways.

    So I’ll be curious to hear — from the developers at Elevate — how things are going right now. We’re at a time in the real estate cycle where everyone is rethinking their strategies. Or maybe, Miami truly is a different planet.

  • Building new cities

    On this blog, we often talk about city building in the context of doing things to help improve a city — whether that be a development project, a new public art mural, or an interesting local business. These interventions help to build a city. But even more specifically, the term has, for many, come to mean building up a city in a positive way.

    But there is another way to think about city building. You can think of it in terms of building actual new cities. We’ve spoken about some of these before, namely this one in California and this odd one in Saudi Arabia. But apparently it is becoming more common. According to The Economist, the world is now building more new cities than it has in the last 80 or so years:

    Egypt’s “New Administrative Capital” is part of a rush of city-building. Firms and governments are planning more settlements than at any time in the post-war period, with many already under construction. Ninety-one cities have been announced in the past decade, with 15 in the past year alone. In addition to its new capital in the north, Egypt is building five other cities, with plans for dozens more. India is considering eight urban hubs. Outside Baghdad, Iraq, workers have just broken ground on the first of five settlements.

    In some cases, it is being done as a solution to urban congestion. If this city is too expensive and unaffordable, just create a new one. This appears to be part of the idea with the above city outside of San Francisco. Of course, new cities can also be created for ideological reasons, or for political purposes, which was the case with Brazil’s capital city, Brasilia.

    Here, the idea was to move the federal capital away from the country’s populated southeast region to a more geographically neutral location in the middle of the country. It also turns out that seeding a new city with government institutions is a good way to get one of these started. Existing cities do, after all, benefit from network effects.

    History points to characteristics shared by successful projects. State institutions can help anchor cities, as Brasília (in Brazil) and Chandigarh (in India) showed in the 20th century. Although both have had problems, people in Brazil and India are voting with their feet. Brasília’s population is growing at 1.2% a year, more than double the national average. Chandigarh, a state capital, is now India’s fourth-richest region on a per-person basis.

    But putting money, ego, and ideology aside, when does it actually make sense to start a new city in lieu of just expanding (or addressing the problems in) the one(s) you’ve already got? Population size can’t be the only factor in determining whether a city is “full”, because Tokyo seems to do just fine as the largest metropolitan area in the world.

    If it hasn’t already been done, I think this would make for an interesting research project. Until then, there’s this (paywalled) Economist article.

  • Examining a circular floor plate in Rio de Janeiro

    I came across this apartment on ArchDaily this morning and I immediately thought to myself, “this looks like the Lagoa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro.” (Rio is one of my favorite cities and we nearly spent a few weeks of winter 2021 in this particular area.) So I opened it up and it turns out I was right. It’s a recent apartment renovation, in this building, by Rio de Janeiro-based architects MZNO.

    I then got onto the floor plan:

    Circular building floor plates invariably create fan-shaped suite layouts like this one here. From my experience, these can create some really beautiful spaces up near the face of the building, but they tend to work better when you have a bit more space to play around with. You’re also going to end up with diagonal walls and probably a radial structural system. In this case, the suite is just under 1,000 sf.

    I wondered if this might have been two suites that were joined together, with the previous demising being the radial shear wall behind the couch (see above). There seems to be two entrances to the suite on this plan. But then I looked at active listings in the building and this seems to be a typical layout. So I think they just stripped things down to the existing structure in order to open up the plan.

    The other item that stood out to me on the plan was the long corridor off the primary bedroom. But again, looking at other plans in the building, I can see that it was initially designed as a walk-in closet. This makes more sense, but it’s also a compromise brought about by this being a relatively deep plan.

    The bedrooms are “tetrised” together to make efficient use of a limited amount of linear glazing. An alternative trade-off (in this second plan) would have been to give it more frontage, and then bury the office (escritório). But I suppose there’s a good argument to be made that it’s better to have more light in your office than in your bedroom.

    MZNO was probably thinking along these same lines when they designed the linear kitchen in the way that they did in the first plan. By aligning it perpendicular to the suite’s exterior glass, you’re able to gain access to a view and some light even when you’re toward the back of the suite.

    Finally, the other thing about circular buildings is that they allow you to do cool circulation spaces like the above. In this case, all of the common area corridors are single-loaded, and wrapped around a huge lightwell in the middle of the building. This maybe isn’t so good if you suffer from vertigo, but it’s obvious that these corridors are serving as an extension of people’s living areas.

    And since this is Brazil, they’re naturally filled with greenery.

    Images: MZNO & Loft

  • Climate and economy

    I have long been interested in the possible relationships between climate and economy. Because my unproven hypothesis is that, given the choice, most city dwellers would probably prefer to hang out on Ipanema beach and drink caipirinhas in the sun than sit in a windowless cube farm toiling away on cover pages for TPS reports.

    Well it turns out that there is some science to support this theory. A 2012 study by professors at Harvard and the University of North Carolina did in fact discover that people tend to work a little harder and focus a bit more when the weather is crappy outside and they’re not distracted by the promise of glorious sunshine.

    This Scientific American article from 2013 also argued that there are physiological reasons for why we’re maybe not as sharp in extremely warm weather. The possible science is that excessive heat is more taxing on our body (compared to the cold) and so more energy is required to maintain homeostasis. That leaves less mental capacity for TPS cover pages.

    Of course, these sorts of ideas aren’t all that novel. For centuries, economists as well as many others have posited that climate could be one of the reasons why geographies like northern Europe have historically had a higher standard of living than the south. It instilled work ethic and an awareness of deadlines. If you didn’t plan accordingly, you would starve to death in the winter.

    But we also know that climate alone won’t do it. There are many examples of tropical cities with advanced economies and high-functioning societies. (The invention of air conditioning surely played a meaningful role.) And on the flipside, there are many examples of cold shitholes. So it’s complicated. But all this being said, doesn’t a caipirinha on the beach sound nice right about now?

    Photo by TAIS HELENA DE CARVALHO on Unsplash

  • Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha dies at 92

    “The city has to be for everybody, not just for the very few.” –Paulo Mendes da Rocha

    Brazilian architect, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, died this past weekend. He was 92. Though he hadn’t really completed many buildings outside of his home country, his work and his contributions to São Paulo are widely celebrated. Some of his accolades include the Mies van der Rohe Prize for Latin American Architecture (2000), the Pritzker Prize (2006), the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement (2016), and the Royal Institute of British Architect’s Royal Gold Medal for Architecture (2017). I’ve always had a soft spot for Brazilian modernism. They were early adopters of European modernism and ultimately made it their own. I don’t think Mendes da Rocha would necessarily appreciate this classification, but as I’ve mentioned here before, modernism, and more particularly brutalism, took on very different qualities in Latin America. Exposed concrete just seems to hit differently in a tropical setting. Here and here are some examples of his more famous projects.

    Photo by Leonardo Finotti via Dezeen

  • Map art using Google Earth satellite images

    I just discovered the work of artist and photographer Federico Winer. More specifically, I just discovered his ongoing art project called ULTRADISTANCIA, which uses Google Earth satellite imagery as a starting point for beautiful map art.

    Above is a piece from his “Mines” collection. What you are seeing is the Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories. It is located about 310 km northeast of Yellowknife, 200 km south of the Article Circle, and apparently it’s Canada’s first surface and underground diamond mine.

    In addition to using images of mines, Federico has transformed airports, ports, and other urban landscapes. Here is a link to his “Selected” gallery, which includes places ranging from Venice to Minas Gerais, Brazil. I think his work is amazing.

    If you’re interested in learning more about his workflow, you can also check out this short video.

    Image: ULTRADISTANCIA

  • Barriers to entry: Salvador vs. Toronto

    Netflix has a new docuseries out about Latin American street food. I watched two episodes of it last night. The first was about a chef from Buenos Aires, Argentina and the second was about a chef — named Dona Suzana — from Salvador, Brazil. Even if you aren’t necessarily into food shows, it’s a good way to remind yourself just how much you probably miss traveling right now.

    The story of Dona Suzana is an interesting one. Before opening her restaurant, she was doing laundry in order to make ends meet. Then at one point, the City of Salvador came to her community in order to undertake a large construction project. They needed someone to cook food for the construction workers and so they asked her if she would do it.

    Since she had always dreamed of being a chef, she jumped at the opportunity and took out a loan to buy everything she needed in order to fit out her kitchen. She cooked for the workers and everyone loved the food. But she never ended up getting paid. They stiffed her.

    That turned her off cooking for a bit and it was not until a trio of graffiti artists were working in her community and looking for a place to eat that she tried her hand at it again. They offered to pay her in advance and persuaded her to make them something. She agreed and the food was a huge hit.

    In fact, the group of artists loved the food so much that they made her a sign with the name “RéRestaurante” (titled this way because Dona has a stutter) and began sharing photos of her dishes on social media. All of a sudden she had people showing up at her door. And today she has people from all around the world showing up at her door.

    This is a wonderful success story. But I think it also says something about land use policies. As far as I can tell from the episode, she setup her restaurant at her place of residence — a community along the waterfront where her husband fishes and where she uses his catches for her renowned dishes.

    Here in Toronto, we are operating in an environment where if you try and setup a coffee shop in a residential “Neighbourhood” — like, for example, Contra at 1028 Shaw Street — you might spend a few years fighting with your neighbors and battling it out at LPAT hearings in order to get the appropriate permissions.

    I’m not necessarily suggesting that we should do away with all zoning (or maybe I am). But I would like to draw your attention to this contrast. Because one has to wonder whether RéRestaurante Dona Suzana would exist today and be known around the world had the barriers to entry not been so low for her. Of course, had there been more rules, maybe she wouldn’t have gotten stiffed the first time around.

    Either way, I am currently in the market for some dende oil.

    Photo by Milo Miloezger on Unsplash

  • City guides in the pre-smartphone era

    I came across this stack of old Wallpaper city guides while reorganizing a few things over the weekend (because that’s what happens on the weekends now). They are pretty beat up and color faded from travel. It looks like these guides are still being published by Phaidon (along with an app), but it’s been well over a decade since I bought one.

    I know the exact time period of the above books because I used to do really nerdy things like date and location stamp them when I got them. The Rome book was July 2007 and I picked it up in Dublin, while I was there working for a real estate developer before the global financial crisis. I also discovered old phone numbers and email addresses written inside of them. Usually it was a Hotmail address.

    What I liked about these guides is that they were fairly condensed — good for a long weekend — and they were generally design-focused — perfect for architecture nerds like me. Their restaurant, bar, and club selections were also just fine as a jumping off point. After that it was up to you to make your own adventure.

    I sent this photo to my friend Alex Feldman over the weekend — he also went without any sleep in Berlin — and he reminded me what it was like at this time. This was 2007. The first iPhone was just being released. Its map functionality was nowhere near what it is today (or didn’t exist). And I certainly didn’t have one. I had a Blackberry with a plastic wheel on the side. It was basically a giant pager.

    To navigate a city at this time meant using a physical map. It also meant getting repeatedly lost and having to ask real people where to go. Alex also reminded me that I made him wander all around Berlin so that I could buy a new pair of glasses. What can I say, this was pre-laser Brandon and I needed cool architect glasses. They ended up being red.

    As frustrating as this must have been at times, there’s something nice about traveling without knowing each and every step and without being able to summon an Uber at any point in time to take you exactly where you want to go. In fact, this is probably the central ingredient of all good travel: you need to allow yourself to be open to new experiences.

    One of the great lessons of Anthony Bourdain was that you have to get out of your comfort zone. Cities have both highs and lows, but there’s real value and authenticity in the lows if you’re willing to engage beneath the surface. Perhaps that is the irony of old fashioned guide books in the pre-smartphone era. They were supposed to tell you exactly where to go, but they actually helped you find the opposite.

    The only city that I never actually got around to visiting from the above stack is São Paulo. As you can tell, Brazil has been on my list for many years. I did make it to Rio de Janeiro a few years ago and São Paulo was supposed to be October 2020. But I’m pretty sure that trip will need to wait. Maybe I should leave my phone at home.

  • Spiky population density maps

    I rediscovered the maps and work of Alasdair Rae this morning. (He has appeared on this blog before in posts like this one here.) Alasdair works in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield and is author of the blog, Stats, Maps n Pix. Recently, he’s been publishing maps showing population densities around the world. He also gets into the details of how they’re made. They are pretty cool to see.

    Here are the Great Lakes.

    And here is Brazil, as well as a map of the world (without any land shown). Canada and the United States barely register on this second one.

  • COVID-19 in the developing world

    One of the things that Bill Gates mentions in his recent TED talk about the coronavirus is that we need to be aware of what might be coming in developing countries, particularly in the southern hemisphere with winter about to arrive. (There’s some evidence of a relationship with temperature.)

    So far, countries like Brazil have been criticized for taking a laid-back approach to fighting the coronavirus. But the same could be said for many, or perhaps most, countries around the world at the outset.

    However, in the case of densely populated slums — like Brazil’s favelas — the problem is expected to be more severe. Without the ability to socially isolate and without proper services, it is questionable whether they will be able to “flatten the curve” in the same way that some developed countries have. There’s also a lack of government oversight in these communities.

    Incidentally, the Financial Times is reporting that organized crime has started to step in to fill this void — and it is happening over WhatsApp. Here is an excerpt from the above article: “Whoever is caught on the street will learn how to respect the measure. We want the best for the population. If the government is unable to manage, organised crime resolves,” read one message sent to residents of a Rio de Janeiro slum.

    One hope is that rich countries will be largely through their outbreaks by the summer and that a vaccine will be well on its way.

    (On a related note, here is an excellent slide deck from the London Business School on the economics of this pandemic. It’s very comprehensive and worth a read.)