The most seminal book on presenting Brazilian architecture to the world, it followed an exhibition in MoMa in 1943, by the architect Philip Goodwin. In a two-month trip to Brazil, Philip Goodwin and the photographer Kidder Smith collected 650 black and white photographs, 250 Kodachromes, 200 archival images, original drawings by Niemeyer. The book features a careful edition and printing of technical drawings and photographs using rotogravure. Not only the works featured there are surprisingly brilliant, but also the scope of this edition, beginning with baroque and popular architecture intermingled with latest achievement at the time, is a statement. Modern architecture was now, and by right, also tropical, popular, historical, daring. It overpassed its colonial past, as completely self-standing in front of flashiest American or European productions.

Still today, Brazilian architecture and all its power and mastery, is not completely reachable. Therefore, this edition has a double interest, it is still the utmost reference for those curious on Brazilian Architecture, and it is a vivid and solid testimony through the journey of Modern culture in an unpredictable and rich context such as the Brazilian.