Augusto Ivan de Freitas Pinheiro (1944) is an architect and urban planner (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 1968). Right after graduation he joined the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro where he works until this date. He has occupied key positions in the municipal government in the secretariats of ‘Public Works’, ‘Planning and General Coordination’, ‘Social Development’ and ‘Culture’ and ‘Urbanism’. In 1974, he was awarded with a NFP fellowship and joined the workshop Urban Planning of the ICHPB-International Courses on Housing Planning and Building at IHS. He was invited to a special programme and returned with a NFP to Rotterdam in 1978 when he developed his research monograph entitled “Multifunctional Development of the Inner City”. Augusto Ivan outlined the most important guidelines of a preservation policy of Rio de Janeiro’s inner city historical core. This work was supervised by Mike Rodell, senior economist of IHS and was inspired on the ideas and concepts of Jane Jacobs. Upon his return to the municipality in 1979, he immediately engaged into the actual application and implementation of the ideas developed during his period in Rotterdam which resulted in the enactment of a unique municipal legislation that safeguarded the preservation of nearly 2,000 properties in Rio’s historical core. This work was pioneer in Brazil and became a cornerstone on the subject, influencing many other projects focusing on the preservation of urban and architectural heritage of the city which amounts today 30,000 different real estate assets. He was also responsible for various urban revitalisation projects and upgrading of deteriorated areas of Rio’s inner city and other neighbourhoods. From 1993 to 2000 he was appointed sub-mayor of the sub-municipalityof Rio’s downtown, and was responsible for the urban management of an important urban area occupied by nearly 300,000 inhabitants including the CBD-Central Business District of Rio, as well as the largest commercial, historical and cultural nodes of the city. The old port area also fell under his responsibility as sub-mayor. In 2001, as Diretor de Urbanism of the Municipal Institute of Urbanism Pereira Passos (former IPLANRio) he coordinated the Urban Restructruring Plan of the Old Port of Rio de Janeiro and from 2003 onwards he has been nominated Municipal under-secretary of Urbanism of the City. Throughout his career, he has participated as keynote speaker, presenting papers in conferences and seminars in Brazil and abroad. Since 1980, he teaches ‘Integrated Planning’ and guides students engageed in their final year projects and dissertations at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Bennet University in Rio de Janeiro. He is the author of several books about the city of Rio de Janeiro, has published many articles in Brazil and abroad focusing on preservation, rehabilitation and revitalisation of historic inner cities. He is married with an IHS alumnus, Eliane Canedo, and is the father of two sons.

"The course was extremely important in my life because it actually provided me with the opportunity to produce a substantial piece of work for a city like Rio de Janeiro, which later inspired many other cities in Brazil. It all started at IHS and the inspiration received from Jane Jacobs’ works" (Augusto Ivan, 2005).