In 2011, the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University inaugurated an international research initiative on the impacts of the implementation of large infrastructure projects in South America and its influences on design. Entitled South America Project (SAP), the initiative brought together a select group of researchers in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design coming from different educational and research institutions in both North and South America.

PUC-Rio, alongside FAUUSP, are the Brazilian institutions that were invited to join the research network and develop activities in partnership with Harvard and other South American institutions. PUC-Rio Professors Otávio Leonídio Gabriel Duarte, who is currently Visiting Professor at Harvard, are responsible for all SAP activities within the university. There currently are being planned international design workshops in partnership with the Universidad de la República (Montevideo, Uruguay), the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Rosario, Argentina) and Harvard GSD, under the responsibility of Professors Gabriel Duarte, Marcos Favero and Pierre Martin.

The SAP initiative was planned to be developed over two years, having been launched in October 2011 with the inaugural symposium Hinterland Urbanisms, which was organized at Harvard and was attended by Professors Otávio Leonídio and Gabriel Duarte, who presented their research proposals and participated in meetings to formulate work plans for the initiative. In the next few years working within the SAP will be organized two symposia to be held after the first year (Santiago, Chile) and at the end (again at Harvard). The final symposium will coincide with a publication and exhibition to showcase the results of the work of teachers and students of various institutions that make up the search network.

More information on the initiative can be found in the website http://www.sap-network.org/