High-rises sweep Sao Paulo, but affect the city's heritage and people's housing needs

Brancatelli on the roof of a building in the Pinheiros neighbourhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photos: Nelson Almeida/AFP

Worried by the surge of skyscrapers fast replacing the houses and historic buildings in her Sao Paulo neighbourhood, Rosanne Brancatelli put up a sign on her street: "Don't take away our sun."

Brancatelli, 60, lives in the last group of houses in the upscale Pinheiros neighbourhood, in the shadows of the high-rises popping up at a dizzying pace in the Brazilian mega-city of 11 million people.