Discussion: Fragments of a Lover‘s Discourse – ­Brazilian Architecture and Reinforced Concrete

The title of a Brazilian textbook on structural engineering for undergraduate students, “Concreto armado: eu te amo” (Reinforced concrete: I love you)1 demonstrates the love affair between this structural element and contemporary architecture in Brazil. Despite the fact that the country is currently the world’s second largest producer of iron ore, metal structures are seldom used in Brazil, where the...