Uploaded on 2016-12-26 by Ana Sofia Almeida

My answer is not about materials but about an architecture style that is prevailing here in Brazil, even in contexts completely diverse from where it originated. Contemporary buildings here are commonly designed with huge curtain walls which not work for dry and hot climate, like ours. The temperatures inside reaches such high values that the only resource available to make it bearable is to install a great number of AC units that run permanently, most days. It is well known that civil construction in Brazil started with Europeans and continues to be inspired by Europe and the US, but some native indians used to built their shelters half-buried on the ground for climate comfort purposes. Yet, we traditionally import ideas from other countries and continually implement those ideas here, most of the times without any criticism at all.