‘Reducing Boundaries – understanding exclusion through informal security defensive systems in wealthy urban areas: Porto Alegre, Bruxelles, Veneto region’ was a multi-sited and multidisciplinary research. In partnership with IUAV University of Venice (Italy) and UniLasalle, Canoas (Brazil), the research was funded by the European Union through the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Program.
Latitude, with an interdisciplinary team of architects, anthropologists and urban designers, worked mainly on the Brazilian case study. A common methodology stemming from anthropology, urbanism and design was applied to the research – ranging from spatial and media analysis to ethnographic fieldwork and in depth interviews – with the aim of unfolding spatial modifications and behaviours of urban elites according to their perception of (in)security, and their related discourses and practices.
The research results unfold new (negative) urban and architectural trends: the lower quality of the housing standards of the gated communities goes hand in hand with an exacerbation of the security system, the introversion of daily practices and the abandonment of the public realm. Next to that, exceptional cases and practices, such as the “good neighbouring” as form of security, cast a light on possible alternatives.

The final output are a book titled “Reducing Boundaries” edited by Fabio Vanin (Latitude), Emanuela Bonini Lessing (Iuav) and Daniel Achutti (UniLasalle) for Mimesis International (2017) and a short documentary video directed and produced by Latitude, ‘Na Bolha’ (In the bubble, 2016).