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This paper discusses public spaces at night, analysing how urban lighting and its gradations of light and darkness affect experience. Urban lighting has been questioned in relation to sustainable and perceptual aspects of the night. Drawing on a methodology that explores the singularities of the nocturnal experience, this paper traces relationships between the practices of subjects and aspects of lighting identified in the Liberdade Square in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The findings suggest perspectives for designing public spaces at night, regarding the plurality of the experience, revealing deviations from the usual practices in Brazil regarding the lights of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at three different Brazilian cities: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte to understand the different models of favela upgrade, the opportunities and the challenges that each model entails. The recent ‘left-turn’ on Latin American politics created several opportunities for architects to help improve the informal sector that comprises a significant portion of every major city in the continent. In Brazil, the Lula government invested billions in the infrastructure upgrade of the infamous favelas. This paper will argue that the two traditional contractual models, the construction bidding (by metrics and values) and the commission by ‘reputation’ (opaque political process of choice), are not sufficient. A third model based on popular participation was tested in the early 2000s but it was gradually marginalized as the country speeded up investment in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]