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| Gabriel Azevedo |
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| Professor Steven Wofsy |
It’s not only about energy.
This has been my second time in Brazil and it has been a rediscovery of what I thought I knew. For me, the course has been a real learning experience and essential to understand the context of energy. For example, one of the most important ideas discussed was the one about the proportionate relation between energy and society welfare. For example, Gabriel Azevedo from Odebrecht, explained the agency of hydropower infrastructure as a key driver for regional development. However, in addition to the energy production challenge, Prof. Wofsy explained how high CO2 emissions are inherently related to energy consumption and to industrialized nations and more recently to growing economies. This means that the challenge is not only about production but is also about how we define the basics of human habitat: how this habitat should look? and how population consumes it and wastes it?
In the end, it is true that we always find energy in agglomerations of any size. Energy is a requirement to habitat in winter in order to survive. Consequently, the strategies aimed to design those habitats will have a direct impact in energy production and consumption. This is why I think design professionals should look seriously into those of contextual energy interaction. For example urban infrastructure to transform waste to energy, hydropower plants engaged with regional development, zoning regulations aimed to environmental performance not only could transform habitat but also the way energy is consumed and wasted.
Giovanni is in the Master's program in Architecture in Urban Design
