Jaime Lerner stood out on the international scene for the use and implementation of ideas that turned the capital of southern Brazil into a world benchmark in terms of urban planning and sustainable growth.
Lerner's main legacy was the adoption of the BRT (Bus Rapid Transportation) transport system, which consisted of the installation of exclusive channels for buses and stops integrated by the city in 1974. In the following years, the example of Curitiba was replicated in many cities of the world.
His professional practice also included the creation of wooded parks around the city of Curitiba, such as the Botanical Garden and A Ópera de Arame, and the closure of Rua XV for automobiles.
With simple and precise ideas, Lerner published six books, most of them related to urban planning. With quick actions of improvement in concrete points, he was an inventor of ideas with which he organized the revolution that made the city a national and international reference in urban planning, transportation, environment, and social programs.
Lerner's main legacy was the adoption of the BRT (Bus Rapid Transportation) transport system, which consisted of the installation of exclusive channels for buses and stops integrated by the city in 1974. In the following years, the example of Curitiba was replicated in many cities of the world.
His professional practice also included the creation of wooded parks around the city of Curitiba, such as the Botanical Garden and A Ópera de Arame, and the closure of Rua XV for automobiles.
With simple and precise ideas, Lerner published six books, most of them related to urban planning. With quick actions of improvement in concrete points, he was an inventor of ideas with which he organized the revolution that made the city a national and international reference in urban planning, transportation, environment, and social programs.
"I always had the illusion and the hope that with a needle stick it would be possible to cure diseases. The principle of recovering energy from a sick or tired point through a simple puncture has to do with the revitalization of that point and the area around it ... It is almost always a spark that initiates an action and the consequent propagation of this action. It's what I call good acupuncture. True urban acupuncture."
Jaime Lerner.
His motto, creativity begins when you get a zero out of your budget, inspired a large number of unique solutions to urban problems on five continents. These and other ideas she reflected in the books "Urban Acupuncture" and "The neighbor, a relative on the street."
In 2010, Lerner was listed as one of the 25 most influential thinkers in the world in the prestigious list produced annually by the American magazine Time.
In recognition of his work, he received several international awards and titles, including the United Nations Maximum Prize for the Environment (1990), UNICEF Criança e Paz (child and Peace) (1996), in 2001, the World Technology Award for Transportation, in 2002, the Sir Robert Mathew Prize for the Improvement of Quality of Human Settlements, by the International Union of Architects, the Volvo Environment Prize in 2004, and received the Urban Planning Medal from L'Académie D'Architecture in France.
Lerner was chosen by the American magazine Planetizen as the second most influential urban planner of all time, only behind Jane Jacobs.
