With a deeply social body of work dedicated to public use, João da Gama Filgueiras Lima, known as Lelé, became one of the key figures in Brazilian architecture. Over his 60-year career, he built hospitals, schools, transit terminals, bus shelters, courthouses, government offices, and other administrative headquarters.

Across all these projects, he combined a meticulous care for materials and the workforce with technical and artistic excellence. He understood, like few others, how to leverage natural light and ventilation to promote energy efficiency and user well-being.

Within the span of a year, Brazil saw two of its greatest architectural archives leave the country: that of Paulo Mendes da Rocha in September 2020, and that of Lucio Costa in October 2021. Both were donated to the Casa da Arquitectura in Portugal. Together, they total around 20,000 items. These announcements sparked a heated debate regarding the preservation of such documents, the role of the Portuguese institution, and what must be done to keep remaining archives in Brazil.

How do you explain the importance of hiring an architect to the general public? In the thirteenth episode of Betoneira, the guest is Stephanie Ribeiro, who shares how she tackled this challenge when given the opportunity to host the show Decore-se on GNT. The conversation revolves around the hits and misses of communication between architects and clients.