Today we introduce you to Francisco Mota, a young environmental engineer who has been helping us with our proposals for Voronezh and Asunción during the last months. The office felt a bit more boring the very moment he left back to Portugal!
Hi, my name is Francisco Mota and I’m a Portuguese urban planner/environmental engineer, vegetarian, environmentalist, stuff maker, and midnight poet. I like to surround myself with a creative environment, and I do believe creativity, passion and having fun are key for a good work, even if it is slowly killing you.
My interests are many. Sometimes I feel like what Fernando Pessoa said, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo (I have within me all the dreams of the world, in The Tobacco Shop). I love to write and play music, and I would like to experiment with other types of creative professions. I’m also an art enthusiast, I like the kind that can, somehow, challenge or touch me. And I do have to say that 90% of Prado bored me to death. [Editor’s note: This is not part of that 90%, right?]
Most of my work wanders around sustainable mobility and urban planning strategies and solutions. Coming from an environmental engineering background has given me some good strengths. I’m quite sensible with ecological and environmental problems, all my education was moved towards sustainability and I enjoy working with data. Actually, I do believe that collecting and analysing urban data can provide us, planners and designers, some important answers. Other thing that also excites me about this field is the collaboration with professionals of different areas, we all have so much to learn and it can lead to bright results.
Since the moment I graduated I was looking for an international experience and I was really glad to meet Ecosistema Urbano and to have the chance to join them for a four month internship. They have a very interesting vision and approach on planning, with a great emphasis on the social and sustainable layers, and not forgetting the importance of creative ideas. During the internship I had the opportunity to work on three different projects: the Voronezh Sea Revitalization, where we had the stimulating task of finding a strategy for cleaning a contaminated reservoir and making it suitable for leisure activities; the Creative Placemaking in South Loop competition, where we developed an artistic/public participation idea to bring some light to the most boring city in Minnesota; and the development of a Master Plan for the historic downtown of Asunción that will make this paraguayan city be stunning.
These four months were great and productive. I had contact with subjects and perspectives on city projects that I always wanted to try, and I did really learn a lot, not only from these projects, but also in the morning coffee breaks and from all the conversations we had while cooking lunch. We really were a small family there.
And there’s another thing, somehow beautiful and sad: the man is the only living being capable of changing and creating (this is, designing) its own ecosystem and, through centuries, we managed to create some amazing cities all around the world. The sad part is that somewhen we forgot to build them for ourselves. Nevertheless, I’m pretty optimistic about the future, once the change to turn our cities into sustainable, attractive and livable places is already happening. I want to use my skills and creativity to help this movement. If you share this vision and want to work together, please write me a line.
Cheers!
Occupation: Urban Planner and Environmental Engineer
Interests: Urban Planning, Mobility, Info-structures, Design, Sustainability, Literature, Music
City/country: Lisbon, Portugal
Web: efemotasurbanstudies.tumblr.com
Social profiles: @efemota, linkedin
Check the Posts by Francisco Mota on this blog