Series Latin America: Thoughts

Lelé: Dialogues with Neutra and Prouvé

English, 2020

The sixth book of “Latin America: Thoughts” collection – Lelé: Dialogues with Neutra and Prouvé, by André Marques – discusses “bioclimatic strategies,” especially the architect’s constant search for architectonic elements capable of inflate air in his buildings using the forces of nature.

The author also identifies in Lelé a constant preoccupation with performance, an action thought like an experimental laboratory based on “recurrence and improvement.” Therefore, the architect will experiment the same element in various projects, always improving it in light of the detected problems. In sum, to repeat and to improve are his design principles.

The shed’s ever growing size that one can observe in his series of designs is understood as an evolution conquered with the constant adjustment of technical elements in an attempt to control the forces of nature. According to André Marques, in this aspect the two intellectual matrices that have an impact on Lelé’s work and line of thought merge: The search for an environmentally adequate architecture that can be built with modular coordination and serial repetition.