Eveline Prado Trevisan
1968-2026
Eveline Prado Trevisan (1968–2026) was a Brazilian architect, urbanist, researcher and public servant, who worked and contributed to the development of more sustainable, inclusive and participatory urban mobility in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. For more than three decades, she worked in the municipal public administration, combining architecture and urban planning with social sciences and participatory approaches to the design and management of urban space.
By María Rosa Muñoz B. and Karen Dobrusky
She completed her architecture degree in 1991 and in 1993 started her work in the Municipality of Belo Horizonte, first in the Regional Administration “Centro-Sul” and later in Belo Horizonte Transit and Transport Company (BHTrans), which in 2022 transitioned to the Superintendency of Urban Mobility of Belo Horizonte (SUMOB).
Despite her demanding job at the Municipality, Eveline continued studying. In 2012 she obtained a Master's degree in Social Sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC Minas). Later in 2021 she completed her PhD in Urbanism at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) on the topic "Streets to be: Mobility and Reclaimed Urban Space" (Ruas de estar: mobilidade e apropriação urbana), in which she, inspired by her work, examined the relationship between mobility and the ways people appropriate public space.
Her collaboration with the Urban Living Lab Center (ULLC) via the Wuppertal Institute and UN-Habitat started in 2013 in the context of the EU-funded project SOLUTIONS (Sharing Opportunities for Low carbon Urban TransporTatION – 2013-2016), by which Belo Horizonte and Bremen (Germany) partnered up to exchange on cycling policies and infrastructure in the context of the project’s city-twinning initiative. The great collaboration established with Belo Horizonte during SOLUTIONS led to the inclusion of the Brazilian city as one of the 4 pilot cities of the global IKI-funded project Urban Pathways (2017-2022).
With the support of Urban Pathways (UP) and other international organizations (ITDP and WRI Brazil), the work led by Eveline since 2014 to position Zones 30 as a consensus strategy to promote walking and cycling in the city finally took off. In 2019, several Zones 30 were implemented with a focus on school surroundings in peripheral areas of Belo Horizonte (Cachoerinha, Lagoinha and Confisco). Despite temporary at the beginning, the positive response from residents and the public opinion led to their permanent adoption and replication in other parts of the city, understanding them as effective measures to reduce the speed and to reclaim public space for the people, something that Eveline would call later in her PhD “Ruas de Estar” (Streets to be).
The local and international visibility gained by the Zone 30 projects, led to the obtention of funds from the COVID Challenges Programme from the GIZ Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) for the implementation of the EcoZona Santa Tereza in 2021. In this intervention, implemented in collaboration between BHTrans, the ULLC, NossaBH and WRI Brazil, the focus shifted towards the implementation of active mobility measures that could contribute to the mitigation of COVID-19 and the related economic recovery.
Considering that the expansion of infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians was crucial to reduce the risks of infection, the proposal included new cycling infrastructure to connect the neigbourhood to the recently expanded cycling infrastructure and the implementation of an open street, extending the area of the existing neighbourhood square and therefore closing permanently the circulation of cars on that street.
This turned the square into a lively public space allowing the people to keep the social distance, but at the same time supporting the numerous restaurants, cultural centers and other businesses in the area. The physical intervention included several urban furniture elements with a circular economy approach (benches made with local materials, recycling bins, plant pots, a playground, a stage and bike parking), floor paint, landscaping and road signs, all reflecting the participatory process with the local community. Based on the EcoZona Santa Tereza experience, the UP project finished with the implementation of the EcoZona Jardim Felicidade in partnership with the local NGO Nossa BH and the UFMG.
Eveline's impressive work on active mobility and community participation attracted growing international attention, leading to important nominations and her participation in international conferences in the past decade. In 2019 she was recognised as a Remarkable Woman in Transport and in 2023 as Remarkable Feminist Voice in Transport by the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) and its Women Mobilize Women initiative. In 2022, she was a finalist in the Environment category of Brazil's Prêmio Espírito Público, which recognises public-sector professionals for significant social and environmental impact. The award profile specifically highlighted her work with Pedala BH, the participatory development of bicycle planning and the Zone 30 projects.
Additionally, her work on the EcoZona Santa Tereza was featured by Deutsche Well and a petition to rename the EcoZona by Eveline’s name was filed to the Municipality after her passing. She also participated as a local representative in several international conferences, such as the World Urban Forum (WUF), the Transport and Climate Change Week (TCCW) and the International Transport Forum (ITF) in several occasions.As if this was not enough, in 2020, in the middle on the pandemic, she started her own podcast, Cidades Possíveis (Possible Cities) and participated as a TED Talk speaker talking about the challenges and opportunities of sustainable mobility.
Eveline’s passionate and committed life work on sustainable mobility and the transformation of streets into safer and more inclusive public spaces is a legacy to the urban community in Brazil, in Latin America and beyond. For the ULLC team that was able to know her and work with her, she was the definition of a change maker and a mentor for many. Her work was characterised by the belief that meaningful urban transformation requires the participation of the people who inhabit the city. The Folha de S.Paulo obituary described her as an architect who "transformed the streets of Belo Horizonte by listening to the people".
She undeniably contributed to consolidate the discourse that cities should be planned for people, not for cars, influencing not only the mobility policies and the public opinion in Belo Horizonte, but in several Brazilian and Latin American cities.Her career thus left both a material legacy, in the form of mobility and public-space interventions in Belo Horizonte, and an institutional and intellectual legacy, through the participatory methods, networks and ideas that she developed and promoted throughout more than three decades of public service and research.
