Brazil Built

Book excerpt: Brazil Built is an examination of the architecture of the Modern Movement in Brazil. In the 1940s and 1950s, Brazil acquired unprecedented prestige in the world of Modern architecture. Brazil was regarded as the country which had inherited the progressive Modernism of the pre-war period in Europe, and which, furthermore, had initiated a new phase of the assimilation of cultural and environmental considerations. This book constitutes a unique presentation of the major Modern buildings in Brazil in a historical context. Prompted by the contemporary re-evaluation of Modernism, and renewed interest in Brazil, this book examines how these Modern buildings came into being, how they came to be so highly regarded and the changing reactions to them in Brazil and abroad.