Biography
João Filgueiras Lima (Rio de Janeiro RJ 1932). Architect, urban planner, builder. He graduated in 1955 from the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba [National School of Fine Arts], in Rio de Janeiro. Newly-graduated, he worked as a draftsman for the Retirement and Pension Institute - IAP. In 1957, he was commissioned by the IAP to develop and monitor the construction of the workers' lodgings in Brasília. He moved to Brazil's future capital, then at the beginning of its construction, and conducted research on industrial components for large-scale construction works, which subsequently took him to the European countries of the socialist block. His first projects were developed between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s: the residential compound for the South African embassy, 1965, and the headquarters of the automotive assembly plants of Disbrave-Volkswagen, 1965, Planalto Automóveis-Ford, 1972, and Codipe-Mercedes Benz, 1973, all in Brasília. Based on the series production of pre-fabricated components, these projects showed Lelé's inventiveness in the creation of reinforced concrete components and established his trademark. He set up his first plants of pre-molded components in Salvador, in 1979, for the urban planning projects commissioned by Mayor Mario Kertész (1945).
In order to facilitate the transportation of components and their manipulation at the construction site, he developed research on a lighter material of reinforced mortar. This research was followed up with projects for small schools in Abadiânia, 1982, in the interior of Goiás, the "factory of schools" of Rio de Janeiro, in 1984, and the Factory of Urban Equipment - Faec, 1985, in Salvador, which produced stairs, railings, rain gutters, stools, bus stops, overpasses etc. Lelé also set up "hospital factories" to produce not only building components, but also hospital appliances for the Sarah Kubitschek network of hospitals, specialized in orthopedic treatment. The most significant technical achievement in this area was the high-standard systems of ventilation and natural lighting, which played a part in the recovery process of in-patients.
Lelé's close involvement with the hospital project originated from a casual circumstance: a car accident involving his wife, in 1963, which led him to meet doctor Aloysio Campos da Paz (1934), later president of the Social Pioneers Foundation of the Sarah Kubitscheck Hospital Network. The same lighting, ventilation and prefab components would be later used in projects for accounting boards and municipal administrative centers developed in many Brazilian state capitals. International recognition came with the prize he received at the Iberian-American Biennial of Architecture and Urban Planning, in Madrid, 1998; a Special Room dedicated to him at the 2000 Venice Biennial; and the Latin-American Grand-Prix of Architecture, at the 9th Buenos Aires International Biennial of Architecture, in 2001.
