I am an architect and planner currently pursuing a PhD in Landscape Planning at SLU Ultuna, under the supervision of Mattias Qviström, Johan Pries (Lund University), and Greet De Block (University of Antwerp). My research takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on history, critical theory, philosophy, and art theory to critically redefine ways of knowing and engaging with landscapes—conceptually, processually, and substantively—within the broader contexts of urban and regional planning.
My PhD research examines the performativity of globally circulated models for regional green structures—such as green belts and green wedges—in the postwar (re)construction of Brasília and Stockholm. Through a theoretically informed analysis of archival sources, municipal comprehensive plans, regional plans, and policy documents from the 1950s to the 1990s, I approach these models as active interventions that enact spatial politics, reproduce and sustain power hierarchies and patterns of urban exclusion, while holding potential for subversion and resistance.
My project is affiliated with SLU’s subject group, Spatial Planning: Landscape, Planning, and Governance, and is contextually connected to The Welfare Landscape Reassembled project led by Mattias Qviström. This project investigates how welfare planning from the 1960s to the 1980s has been understood, transformed, and renegotiated in contemporary densification initiatives, focusing on health, active outdoor life, social justice, and landscape heritage.
As a critically reflective researcher and practitioner, I strive to continuously question, unlearn, and reimagine dominant practices and perspectives, including my own. I hold closely the values of critical thinking, imagination, social justice, and education in all aspects of my work.
Book Chapters:
Ferreira da Silva, S. 2022. "Brasilia, a story seen from the roadside: narratives of landscape transformation and the technological sublime", in Heathcott, J. (ed.) Routledge Handbook on Infrastructure Designs. New York: Routledge.
Da Silva, SF 2019. "Ways of Seeing: the Downplay of Landscape Aesthetics in Sustainable Urban Paradigm", in Haas, T. et. al (ed.) Perspectives on Urban Realities. Stockholm: KTH ABE.
Master Thesis:
Da Silva, SF, 2018. "Paisagens Atravessadas: Projeto, experiencia e cotidiano na Estrada Parque Taguatinga em Brasília" (Traversed Landscapes: Urban project, experience, and everyday life at the Taguatinga Parkway in Brasilia), Master Thesis, University of Brasilia, 296 pages, <https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/32664>.
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Da Silva, SF et. al. 2016. Poéticas da Paisagem: do sublime ao pitoresco no movimento Land Art ( Landscape Poetics: From sublime to picturesque in the Land Art Movement ), Revista Estética e Semiótica 6(1), <https://doi.org/10.18830/issn2238 -362X.v6.n1.2016.10>.
Da Silva, SF, 2016. "Paisagens em trânsito: o caso da Estrada Parque Taguatinga" (Landscapes in Transit: the case of the Taguatinga Parkway), Labor e Engenho 10(3):302-312, <DOI: 10.20396/lobore .v10i3.8646182>.
Conference Papers:
Pereira, LB and Da Silva, SF 2016. "Espaços livres, enclaves ea paisagem urbana na modernidade agravada: o caso de Águas Claras" (Open Spaces, Enclaves and
the Urban Landscape in the Aggravated Modernity: the Case of Águas Claras ),IV ENANPARQ: Encontro da Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo. Porto Alegre: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
Da Silva, SF 2016. "Gestos na paisagem: o imaginário do horizonte no cotidiano urbano" ( Gestures in the Landscape: the imaginary of the horizon line in everyday life ), Corpocidade 5: Gestos Urbanos, Federal University of Bahia, December 6th to 9th 2016. Salvador: Plataforma Corpocidad.