This article investigates the epistemologies of modernity and coloniality in the discourse of so-called Paulista architecture through an analysis of one of its most canonical projects: the Brazilian Pavilion at the Japan World Exposition in Osaka, 1970. The article’s close reading of the project is done in parallel with the unpacking of discourses that sustained the architect’s aesthetic procedures: (1) territory and nature, (2) the people and “racial democracy,” (3) regional hegemony disputes in Brazil, and (4) national development ideology. The entanglements of architecture and political history during the Brazilian military dictatorship mean that architectural production is framed not simply in a heroic position of resistance but rather through its complexities and nuances, as well as processes of accommodation and insertion of its historical agents within that regime.

Keywords:
Brazil, modern architecture, twentieth century, Brutalism, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, dictatorship, Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970, Osaka Expo, Expo ’70, Brazilian Pavilion
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2025
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