Un Brasile (r)esistente: il progetto della bioregione urbana di Vitória fra tradizione e trasformazione

The article describes the outcomes of an action-research developed within the activities of the Ecological Settlement Design Laboratory of the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence. The research, conducted in collaboration with the Patri_Lab Laboratory of the University of Espírito Santo in Brazil, aimed at testing, verifying and integrating the vision of the urban bioregion in the territorialist approach, focusing the transcalar project on the protection and valorisation of the village of Araçatiba, located on the edge of the metropolitan region of Vitória, in the State of Espírito Santo. A Quilombola community lives in the village, which has resisted and escaped colonial slavery by taking refuge in self-managed villages. The experience highlighted the need to critically adapt the territorialist approach to non-European contexts, valorising knowledge, forms of life and non-codified spatial practices. Araçatiba stands as a paradigmatic example of common good and place of resistance, able to offer valuable insights for the evolution of territorial design practices.