Designed by the architect João Batista Vilanova Artigas and the engineer Carlos Cascaldi, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo was constructed in apparent reinforced concrete and reveals a singular and extraordinary plasticity. By these meanings, the building became a sample of reference and inspirations for other architects in order to concive educational buildings. The magnitude of the roof composed by a grid, long-span beams (up to 22 meters) as well as other structural elements, such as the inverted A beams and unparallel pyramid-like shape columns, mint innovations for the advance in architecture and engineering in Brasil during the decade of 1960.
It is within the close relationship between people and the learning of group life, says the architect, that it becomes possible to combat individualism. "I thought it [the building of FAU] as the spatialization of democracy, worthy places, no front doors, because I wanted it as a temple, where all activities are lawful."
