Published in 2017, Ode to the Void is sold out since March 2019; a new print is due soon.
The texts in this book were previously published in the Vitruvius online journal by architect Carlos M Teixeira. The more incisive of them is “The True Nature of Brasilia,” a praise to the cerrado (a Brazilian savannah) and a dreamlike reverse way of seeing the city: Brasília did not conquer the cerrado – on the contrary, the cerrado has conquered the city (or it is about to conquer it). Despite the Pilot Plan’s superquadras begging for more architectural substance, what actually happens is that the voids are much more eloquent than the solids: it is a sparse city amid of a sea of grass that should be reconsidered by the potential of these ignored weeds, which are the insidious and real protagonists of that landscape.
The book is a joint publication of Romano Guerra Editora (São Paulo, Brazil) and Nhamerica Platform (Austin, United States) and is part of the Latin America: Thought series, coordinated by Abilio Guerra, Fernando Lara and Silvana Romano.
Pictured: “The True Nature of Brasilia”