KEYWORDS: Sustainable development, architecture, urban structures, Amazonia and culture.
The federal territory of Guaporé, currently the State of Rondônia, is involved in a productive process with other regions in Amazonia and has been part of the global commercial system from the latter part of the nineteenth century. The regional economy grew in a disorganised manner, which resulted in suffering for local people. The creation of a group for encouraging interdisciplinary research is fundamental to retaining the cultures of local inhabitants and to finding more sustainable solutions too.

The process of occupying the State of Rondônia resulted in the intensification of conflicts between family farmers and major landowners, property document forgers, share-croppers and indigenous people. The latter people were forced to migrate and to leave their spiritual links with their former homes or to stay in areas inappropriate to their survival. On the other hand, urban centres were designed without good planning, which disfigured the environment and caused problems for biodiversity and saw construction on flood-prone areas. The theme Sustainable Urban Structures Amazonian Territory is undoubtedly one of the ways to identify the solutions to environmental, economic and social problems beyond simply trying to rescue local cultures.
Research Lines
1. Sociocultural transformations in the lives of traditional peoples
Investigating the changes and problems caused to people due to the impact of traditional "development", ie, the emergence of cities, and to capture the contributions of traditional cultures in relation to the organisation of spaces for individual and collective use (housing and other). Another important aspect is knowledge mediation and indentification of cultural and social patterns necessary to sustainable urban projects.

2. Impact of urban structures in relation to biodiversity

There is a need for the development of tertiary-trained professionals in the fields of infrastructure, health, and environment. In architecture and urbanism the objective is to investigate how to design cities integrating the best available natural resources, thus reducing the impact of new structures on the social and natural environments in which they operate.

3. Projects and sustainable buildings

The goal of this research is to investigate new techniques, technologies and materials in the design and construction of buildings that meet the sustainability criteria adapted to local and regional realities.