ABSTRACT
Of all the ‘Brazilian Style’ buildings, the Ministry of Education became the most influential outside Brazil after the Second World War. Its clear form, dynamic relationship to the surrounding urban landscape and its evident regional adaptation of European Modernism made it extremely popular among architects. It became the prototype for the prismatic tower on pilotis in a plaza with a contrasting low block which proliferated in postwar Europe and America. Siegfried Giedion considered that it
not only marked an important point in the development of South American architecture, it has also had a far-reaching influence on the design of large buildings all over the world.1
