# Real pictures of Sao Paulo, Brazil



## SS454 (Nov 10, 2003)

I never knew it was THIS skyscrapery.


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## antofagastino (Aug 14, 2005)

??????????????


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## heavyzakura334 (Jul 30, 2004)

yeah, look at this one
that is why some citites or regions in simcity are called sao pauloesque


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## PotatoGuy (May 10, 2005)

wow, are all those highrises really necesary? i mean, is there really a demand to build up? or do they jz do it for the same reason dubai does it


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## AcesHigh (Feb 20, 2003)

SS454 said:


> I never knew it was THIS skyscrapery.


I guess you should browse more the forums... there are hundreds of threads about São Paulo. Aerials, sat pics, street shots, buildings, etc...


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## AcesHigh (Feb 20, 2003)

PotatoGuy said:


> wow, are all those highrises really necesary? i mean, is there really a demand to build up? or do they jz do it for the same reason dubai does it


yes, they are necessary cuz we dont like sprawled cities. Yes, there is a demand to build up, and its NOT AS DUBAI at all.

São Paulo has 18 million people, unlike Dubai. São Paulo also has not grown in just 1 decade, but its growing since the end of the 19th century. São Paulo FIRST SKYSCRAPER dates back to 1928 and São Paulo had the tallest building outside USA in 1947!

Also, its not ONLY São Paulo. This is truly a brazilian style of cities. Look at some other brazilian cities:

Salvador










Rio de Janeiro
downtown


























Recife










Santos










Florianopolis










Londrina










Curitiba










Belo Horizonte










Fortaleza


















Goiania










Campinas










Natal













ok, in fact I am copying these pics from other threads. I wont repost the entire thread here, so if you wanna look more brazilian cities, (there are more than 50 brazilian cities from all sizes with such skylines), look in these two threads:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=256672

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?threadid=86053


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## BuffCity (Jul 29, 2004)

It just looks like they don't like their own land lots or something...like everyone wants a condo? lol

Just alot of people, but I guess they live in these huge metro centers but dont have as many (or to the degree of...) small communities like here in the USA, I might be wrong.

btw...Girls in Brazil are freakin hot...the beachs look fun.


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## SS454 (Nov 10, 2003)

no offence to any brazilian or ppl that like that type of city, but I personally would hate to live there. I'd get a headache from being surrounded by so many skyscrapers. Belo Horizonte looks nice the way its sort of placed in a shallow valley.


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## AcesHigh (Feb 20, 2003)

/\ thats nonsense. Look at street level pics (come on, go search for them, I wont post everything here) of brazilian cities and you will see they are not claustrophobic from inside and although there are lots of highrises the streets are full of trees.


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## BuffCity (Jul 29, 2004)

I agree, I bet they save alot of money in public works and things like that. I wonder if they have no property tax like we do here in the USA, maybe just sales or income tax.


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## TarheelsCubs (Dec 1, 2004)

Wow, now that is a sea of skyscrapers! Looks just like sim city 4!

They probably have no sub-divisions there, and that is a good thing. It may not look like it, but I bet they deystroy less of their environment there by building high and dense. Thats another good thing.


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## Æsahættr (Jul 9, 2004)

What a realistic city. What version of Sim City?


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## AcesHigh (Feb 20, 2003)

/\ yeah, actaully i dont know why this thread was posted here!




BuffCity said:


> I agree, I bet they save alot of money in public works and things like that. I wonder if they have no property tax like we do here in the USA, maybe just sales or income tax.


Brazilians actually pay as much taxes as an european citizen, but for services 1/5 that good. There is property tax... its called IPTU. Everyone must pay it based on the square metreage of the property they own.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

BuffCity said:


> It just looks like they don't like their own land lots or something...like everyone wants a condo? lol
> 
> Just alot of people, but I guess they live in these huge metro centers but dont have as many (or to the degree of...) small communities like here in the USA, I might be wrong.
> 
> btw...Girls in Brazil are freakin hot...the beachs look fun.



actually we have small comunities in sao paulo, but they are located in the suburbs.


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## BuffCity (Jul 29, 2004)

to make a point...look at some of the cities people build and look at these photos, the "sea of skyscrapers theory".


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## Cape Town Guy (Jun 21, 2005)

surely traffic and pollution is a huge problem in Sao Paulo ?


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## Kev the burninator (Sep 24, 2004)

woah..... dense...


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## TO_Joe (Jul 22, 2005)

*Brazilian / SA Cities vs. Asian Cities*

I am curious about a comparison between "South American" (and especially Brazilian) cities versus "Asian" cities from people who've been to both. Topic is a bit broad brush but it would be interesting to see others' perspectives. 

Many "Asian" and "Brazilian" cities tend to be vertically-built cities. This is quite a contrast to the typical "North American" and "Australian" low-density flatland cities with a few "downtown" highrise office towers for show (though high rise condos are slowly coming in).

Any thoughts on why? Any thoughts on the different social interaction patterns? How do the cities feel? What do the residents think and what do they prefer?

I'll kick it off with some of my observations:

1. Many Asian cities are dense because people like them that way -- they like the big city crowds, the vibrancy, the energy that it gives them. Certainly Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai (among others) have an electric sense of energy to them both day and night.

Many Asians enjoy going out and exploring / interacting rather than staying at home. They find it stimulating. 

In contrast, the North American (particularly American) can best described as a "stay at home" culture in their private space in suburbia / exurbia.

"Latin Americans" I find are generally in-between -- they are fairly gregarious and seem to not put as much a premium on private spaces but they are shy of the enjoying the Asian "crowds".

2. An incorrect perception is that Asian cities are dense because there is a large population but no land. That is not 100% accurate. The new world may be big and empty but while Asia has a large population (about 60% of the world's population), it is a huge place (45 M sq km, doubled the size of North America (US + Canada + Mexico) or 30% of the world's land area).

Land is scarce only in certain countries such as Japan (basically it's one big volcanic rock garden), Korea (an isolated penninsula on the far fringes before there was maritime "Asia-Pacific" trade), Indonesia (uneven distribution of population concentrating in Java and Bali compared to the relatively empty huge areas of Kalimantan, Sumatra, Irian Jaya or Sulawesi) or certain peculiar geographic location of the cities like Mumbai (on a narrow penninsula).

Others have great vertically-built densities because of geopolitics -- city-states like Hong Kong, Singapore or Macau arose because of colonialism, subsequent cold-war, and in the case of Singapore, regional conflicts (being ejected from Malay Federation) that drove the population there and limited its expansion and growth.

If you look at the sprawl of Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Karachi, Tehran or Beijing, they evoke images more reminiscent of Los Angeles. As with Mexico City, or even San Jose, Costa Rica.

3. South American cities vary in their design -- vertical vs. horizontal -- and doesn't correlate exactly to the presence of New World civilizations in the 1500s. 

Mexican and most of Central America cities have horizontal, flat designs -- besides cultural factors, earthquakes and volcanoes probably have something to do with it.

In contrast, Buenos Aires was on par with New York (and even richer per capita) in the earlier part of the 20th century so it was always known as a "ciudad de rascacielos" (city of skyscrapers) until economic decline has caught up with them (in 1930s, Argentina was the 5th riches country in the world, richer per capital and as a whole than Canada).

Brazil is interesting. Despite all that space (Brazil is slightly smaller than US or China), Brazilian cities are all built vertically -- the classic style is like Rio, with an arc of high rises along the sweeping and gentle Atlantic beachfront. No doubt the image of Rio is an influence -- an affluent lifestyle encouraged by land developers to get as much yield from the beach front land -- along with a lack of hurricanes or earthquakes.



Thus, in summary, the way cities are designed and look are determined primarily by cultural factors subject to geographic hazards or limitations more than any other factor.


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## AcesHigh (Feb 20, 2003)

São Paulo also has always disputed with Buenos Aires the skyscraper capital outside US title. (that until the 60s).

In 1927 São Paulo had a 33 floors, 120 meters tall skyscraper, the Martinelli. In 1947, the Banespa tower was the TALLEST tower in the world outside USA.


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