A Invenção da Superquadra

In 2020, the city of Brasília celebrated 60 years of its foundation, and as part of the celebrations, IPHAN (National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage) re-edited “A Invenção da Superquadra” (which translates as “The Invention of the Superquadra”), a book based on research by professor Matheus Gorovitz and Marcílio Mendes Ferreira, from the University of Brasília. One of the most complete and affective records on the architecture of this modernist city, the book brought to the public documents and historical records that allow us to understand how the structure of the housing sector in Brasília, proposed by Lucio Costa, was implemented and interpreted.

The second edition of the book is as loyal to the original studies as it embraces the passing of the years, not only by reproducing the material published in 2009, but also by expanding the research. Photographs of the “superblocks” have been updated, texts and technical drawings have been reviwed and corrected, and additions have been made, such as biographies of interviewees and projects that appeared in the professors’ original research, although the scarcity of specific information did not allow their inclusion in the first edition. Besides the updates, the new edition is bilingual, and brings the English translation for the texts.

To bring together all the content, in the new graphic project we sought a grid capable of contemplating the essays, interviews, plans and images that permeate the more than 500 pages of the book. For the typography, we chose Fakt, due to its highly functional design, which offers the different text hierarchies necessary for the layout. The treatment, mainly in grayscale, helps the reader understand the diverse layers of the content, whereas the highlights in red refer to the color of the city soil, which insists on smudging the whiteness of the buildings.