Jaap is urban designer, architect and partner of Posad-Rosa Estratégias Espaciais, Spatial Strategies. Since 2008 he carried out various projects in Brazil in the formal and informal city. He believes that good spatial strategies render the formal/informal dichotomy irrelevant.

“In the past years I have worked in various Brazilian communities and grass-root projects, but also for formal clients. During the TU Delft informality meeting I would like to focus on how dealing with informality is inescapable when doing projects in Brazil. Questions on how to deal with informal processes in the city always pop-up, also while working formal clients as municipalities. This leads to interesting situations and solutions that attempt to bridge the gap between what is often seen as a dichotomy. I will explain this showing a project we have recently done for the municipality of São Bernardo, which asked us the devise a strategy to improve the quality of their sidewalks.”