Ana Belizário: ‘Timber should be the material of choice in the global south’

Episode 61. AJ Climate Champions with Hattie Hartman and Joe Jack Williams. 

In this episode, we turn our attention to the global south. Ana Belizário describes Brazil’s burgeoning mass timber movement, which includes notable exemplars such as the Children's Village School (in Tocantins in northern Brazil) which won the RIBA International Prize in 2018.  Many talented Brazilian architects are shifting their focus from concrete to timber.

Belizário cites Waugh Thistleton’s Murray Grove as a precedent many Brazilians designers initially strove to emulate. By now there are many more typologies and approaches, including a high-end retail complex in São Paulo’s fashionable Pinheiros district which will open in early 2026.

We also discuss the biodiversity challenges of pine and eucalyptus plantations, which supply Brazil’s mass timber industry, including their potential for growth and how they relate to native species.

Belizário argues that hybrid construction is a crucial way forward. While not carbon negative, hybrid construction is an easy win because the industry ‘feels safe’ with it, according to Belizário. ‘Every cubic metre counts. A thousand hybrid structures is better than one super mass timber structure that will never come,’ she explains.

At the time of recording, Belizário had just returned from COP 30 in Belém where Built by Nature launched its Principles for Responsible Timber Construction. She describes the five principles as a useful tool for a project, a company, or even a country to situate itself on its timber journey and develop an action plan for the various points. 

Post-COP, Belizário is hopeful. ‘Sustainability got popular,’ she says. 

Reflecting on how Brazil’s mass timber industry has grown in recent years, Belizário hopes that within five years Urbem will be able to boast an all-female mass timber installation team!

For show notes and to catch up on all AJ Climate Champions episodes, click here.

Supported by Built by Nature