Connect the Dots is an IABR–PARTNER PROJECT, that the department of Urban Development of the Municipality of São Paulo developed by invitation of IABR’s president George Brugmans and that was subsequently presented in Rotterdam in the context of IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY.

The thinking behind Connect the Dots was first advanced in the context of the IABR–Test Site São Paulo (2010-2012), the lead designer of which was the architect Fernando de Mello Franco, then a partner of MMBB, who was a member of the Curator Team of the 5^th IABR: Making City.
Exploring the complex relationships between urban development, infrastructure, small manufacturing and social housing, all against the background of the need to make city for people and to further social inclusivity, the Brazilian-Dutch team started with laying the groundwork for what was to become the first phase of IABR’s next economy-program.
When, on January 1^st 2013, De Mello became São Paulo’s City Councilor for Urban Development, he took some of the ideas developed on the Test Site to the next stage, eventually leading to their integration in the city’s urban development policies. Connect the Dost was one of the projects in which these ideas came to fruition.
When the Mayors Challenge Grand Prize was announced, De Mello wrote “…IABR has been, once more, a valuable tool for me, since [the invitation to participate in] IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY was the trigger for the development of the initial research of Connect the Dots”.