The Politics of Heat: What Brazil’s Architecture Reveals About the Next Wave of Resilience Investment

What Is Politics, Really?

Two philosophical lenses — Arendt's plurality and the social contract — for reading how power organizes society and space.

There is a widespread understanding that politics permeates nearly every human interaction — from the choice of food at the first meal of the day to the style of music selected on the way home from work. Yet if politics runs through every everyday decision, what is it in its essence?

In conventional dictionaries, the meaning of the term tends to be reduced to a limited set of bureaucratic and administrative concepts: guidelines, public administration, state action or civility. However, these instrumental definitions are insufficient to capture accurately the true nature of the political phenomenon and its deep mechanics. To understand it, we must turn to the field where its theoretical depth reached its peak: Philosophy.

Within philosophy, interpretations of the structure of power abound. To ground our analysis, we will highlight two central currents: the ontology of politics proposed by Hannah Arendt and the tradition of Contractualism.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), a Jewish philosopher born in Germany and forced into exile by the rise of Nazism (to France from 1933 and to the United States from 1941), became one of the most influential voices in the investigation of the origins of totalitarianism and of how liberal and democratic regimes can gradually be contaminated by authoritarian logics.

In her work What Is Politics? (published posthumously, in 1993), Arendt starts from the idea that politics is based on human plurality: it arises among distinct individuals who need to find a way of coexisting. From this perspective, politics is not a mere artificial institution but a condition inherent in human plurality itself: we exist politically because we are diverse and need to establish spaces of coexistence.

Contractualism, on the other hand, focuses on the genesis of power dynamics, the legitimacy of authority and the consolidation of the Social Contract. In broad terms, contractualist theorists hold that the social contract is the implicit or explicit pact entered into by individuals — who agree to give up part of their unrestricted freedom and submit to a body of laws, norms and ethical codes — in exchange for stability, security and collective preservation, overcoming the state of nature that precedes civilization (for Hobbes, a war of all against all; for Locke and Rousseau, a condition described in less belligerent terms).

Most thinkers in this tradition build their reasoning on the dichotomy between the state of nature and the civil (or social) state. They analyze how humanity organized itself before the emergence of complex structures of governance and centralized power — as in the original nomadic or tribal societies. The transition to the civil state occurs when individuals recognize the need to adhere to an agreed set of rules and institutions, a pact indispensable for containing chaos and mediating the conflicts inherent in human coexistence.

The fusion of these two perspectives reveals that politics is the primary social technology for organizing and managing life in society. We are born political beings because survival in a group demands mediation between divergent views, cultures and interests. It is through this arrangement of norms and institutional pacts that distinct individuals manage to articulate coexistence and build lasting social and spatial structures.

Brazil as a Laboratory: How Power Shapes Space

From colonial taxes to Baroque gold: how extraction and ambition drew the first lines of Brazil's built environment.

While the United States was fighting its War of Independence and Recognition (1775–1783), Brazil was living through what Brazilian history calls the "Colonial Period."

As has always been the case, everything has always been connected: the fact that the American people (who at the time were not yet the American people, but British colonies) had risen up inspired the Brazilian people to fight for their own freedom against Portugal. An interesting fact from a historical standpoint is this:

There was a Brazilian linked to the earliest independence plans, José Joaquim da Maia e Barbalho (a Brazilian student in France), who met Thomas Jefferson — then US minister to France — in Nîmes in 1786 to ask for US military and financial support for a future revolt in Brazil (which would become the Minas Conspiracy, or Inconfidência Mineira, of 1789). Jefferson listened to him but made no commitment.

Unlike the French institutional and ideological model, which brought social instability, the American Revolution was viewed favorably by the Brazilian agrarian elite. One thing that contributed to this favorable view was that it offered the possibility of winning economic and political freedom without necessarily destroying the social order or abolishing slavery, preserving the privileges of local elites.

A parallel between the Thirteen Colonies and Colonial Brazil is taxation. The Stamp Act (1765) was a law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain that levied a direct tax on all printed paper in the Thirteen Colonies of North America (it was repealed in 1766); in Brazil, meanwhile, there was the Derrama. The Derrama was a mechanism of forced tax collection instituted by the Portuguese Crown during the Brazilian colonial period (mainly in Minas Gerais, from 1750), in which the Crown demanded a minimum payment of 100 arrobas of gold per year (about 1,470 kg) in respect of the quinto (the "fifth," a 20% tax on all gold extracted). If gold extraction fell and the quota of 100 arrobas was not met by the Smelting Houses, the difference was charged to the population. Portuguese troops and authorities entered towns and homes to confiscate property (furniture, jewelry, real estate) from anyone in arrears to the metropolis in order to make up the shortfall. The threat of a new Derrama was one of the triggers of the Minas Conspiracy (Inconfidência Mineira, 1789). Together with other factors — such as the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Rio de Janeiro (1808) and the Porto Revolution (1820) — discontent with the metropolis's policies led Brazil to independence in 1822.

Baroque: When Gold Became Architecture

The wealth of the mining cycle, turned into ornament, prestige and power.

The wealth of the gold cycle, from which the Crown extracted the quinto and, when necessary, the Derrama, also financed the region's Baroque architecture, which is characterized by:

• Abandonment of the rigidity and strict geometric symmetry of the Renaissance, using ovals, ellipses, spirals and concave or convex facades
• Use of twisted (Solomonic) columns, irregular arches and volumes that appear to be in transformation
• Architectural projections and strategic openings that create dramatic contrasts between brightly lit areas and mysterious half-shadows
• Spaces planned to move, impress and envelop the observer immediately
• Fusion of architecture with illusionistic ceiling frescoes (giving the impression of an open sky or infinity), gilded stucco and expressive sculpture
• Intense use of gilded woodcarving, colored marbles and intricate details that demonstrate divine or political power.

We emphasize here the importance of that last bullet point: Baroque architecture was extremely expensive. Church interiors were densely ornamented with wooden sculptures covered in thin sheets of gold (especially driven by the mining cycle in Minas Gerais and the sugar-producing Northeast); the ornamentation required dedicated craftsmen, carvers, sculptors and painters (such as Aleijadinho and Mestre Ataíde), whose meticulous manual work took years or decades to complete; heavy or specific materials from the European tradition (such as marble or dressed stone from Portugal) had to be imported by ship and transported along precarious routes, such as on the backs of mules climbing the mountain range; the third orders and lay brotherhoods competed with one another to build ever grander and more sumptuous temples as a way of demonstrating social prestige and securing religious status; and, besides, the Baroque style rejected simple spaces, covering ceilings, walls, columns and altars with complex reliefs, perspective paintings and carvings that demanded time and massive investment.

Neoclassical: Imported Models for a Tropical Country

How the Court's arrival and French influence set a template of heavy, imported design.

The Neoclassical period (1808–1826) is marked by the arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family in Brazil, fleeing the invasion of the French army commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte. Portugal maintained strong economic relations with England — but France, through the Continental Blockade (1806), demanded that all of Europe close its ports to England. Portugal refused and kept up those relations, and for that reason was invaded by French troops in November 1807, which led the Court to sail for Brazil. In Portugal, local resistance, with British military support (the Peninsular War), led to the expulsion of the French troops in 1811.

A few years earlier, in 1803, the US had bought Louisiana from France under Napoleon Bonaparte. On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine in his annual message to Congress (the text owed much to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams). The Doctrine declared that the American continent was no longer open to European colonization and that any European intervention or attempt at recolonization would be viewed as a threat to the peace and safety of the US. Shortly afterward, in 1824, the US became the first country to formally recognize Brazil's independence.

In the following decades, the US continued to expand its territory: Texas was annexed in 1845, and the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) brought in new territories, among them California.

In Brazil, from the arrival of the Court onward, colonial houses of rammed earth (taipa) and wooden lattices began to give way to buildings of masonry, metal, glass and French roof tiles. Neoclassical architecture, spread from the arrival of the French Artistic Mission (1816), imposed symmetrical schemes, triangular pediments, columns and stone portals on the city, designed to convey a sense of order, stability and civilizing power.

In the 19th century, the style represented the construction of a modern imperial State aligned with Enlightenment ideals. In modern times, commercial versions of the style — the so-called "shopping-mall/developer neoclassical" — came to be used in real estate developments, often associated with ideas of "luxury, tradition and aristocracy." When done without adaptation to the climate, this replication of heavy facades, compartmentalized windows and eclectic ornaments hinders cross-ventilation, efficient natural lighting and thermal control suited to the tropics.

The Republic: Generals, Oligarchs and the Birth of the Favela

Instability at the top, informal city-building from below.

Even though it is a period widely discussed in Brazilian schools, I am fully aware that not everyone reading this is Brazilian, so we must talk about Brazil's republican period.

The republican period was divided between the Republic of the Sword (the military governments of Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Peixoto, 1889–1894) and the Oligarchic Republic (dominated by the agrarian elites of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, in the so-called "Coffee with Milk Politics," 1894–1930).

The Republic of the Sword: Crisis, Revolt and the First Hillside Communities

An economic bubble, naval revolts and the origins of the favela.

The name "Republic of the Sword" comes from the fact that the country was governed by military men — the army marshals — after the end of the monarchy. Marshal Deodoro headed the Provisional Government (1889–1891) and, in February 1891, was elected president by Congress, amid the Encilhamento Crisis. On November 3, 1891, he closed Congress, and this led to the First Revolt of the Armada (the Navy), and then to his resignation from office.

The Encilhamento crisis was a severe economic and financial crisis that took place in Brazil between 1889 and 1891, during the Provisional Government of Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, in the transition from the Monarchy to the Republic. Under Rui Barbosa as Finance Minister, the government authorized banks to issue paper money in an uncontrolled manner in order to make credit easier. The aim was to put money into circulation to pay the new wage workers (after the abolition of slavery) and to finance the creation of industries to modernize the country. The excess of credit generated euphoria on the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange, where numerous shell (phantom) companies and overvalued shares appeared. The issuance of unbacked money caused strong inflation and the devaluation of the mil-réis (the currency of the time); the bubble burst, driving hundreds of companies into bankruptcy, devaluing assets and generating unemployment.

The First Revolt of the Armada was a military uprising by the Brazilian Navy in November 1891 against the government of President Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca. The Navy was dissatisfied with its loss of political and salary prestige relative to the Army in the newly proclaimed Republic, and opposed the closing of the National Congress and the declaration of a state of siege by Deodoro da Fonseca, acts considered contrary to the Constitution of 1891. Warships took Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro (then the federal capital) and threatened to bombard the city if Congress was not reopened. Without enough military support to sustain the confrontation and pressured by the political crisis, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca resigned the presidency on November 23, 1891, and Vice President Floriano Peixoto took over.

With the resignation of Deodoro da Fonseca, it was his vice president, Floriano Peixoto, who assumed power. Despite his rigid profile, he was quite popular among the lower strata of the urban population. He adopted measures such as reducing food prices and rents, price controls on basic necessities and the construction of public housing. Floriano tried to contain the Encilhamento crisis by centralizing the issuance of currency in the federal government (taking power away from private banks) and by stimulating national industry with greater customs protection and credit facilities.

And then, between September 1893 and March 1894, in Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, the Second Revolt of the Armada took place. The rebels claimed that Floriano Peixoto was an illegitimate president, since the Constitution of 1891 required new direct elections to be called if the president resigned before completing two years in office (which is what had happened with Deodoro da Fonseca). Floriano refused to call the election. The Navy still felt politically and economically weakened and relegated to second place in favor of the Army, and this contributed to the Second Revolt of the Armada.

The rebel ships positioned in Guanabara Bay bombarded the city of Rio de Janeiro in order to force Floriano Peixoto out. Unlike Deodoro, Floriano resisted and fought the rebels with the support of the Army, popular militias and the purchase of auxiliary vessels (nicknamed the "cardboard fleet"). Unsuccessful in Rio de Janeiro, part of the rebels fled to the south of the country and joined forces with the Federalists of the Federalist Revolution (1893–1895) in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina (Desterro), where the movement was massacred and defeated. The government of Floriano Peixoto consolidated its power, the leaders were exiled, killed or imprisoned, and the city of Desterro was renamed Florianópolis.

It is during this period, at the end of the Republic of the Sword, that the first hillside occupations that would give rise to Rio de Janeiro's favelas appear. Before that, the poor population and the enslaved people newly freed by the Golden Law (Lei Áurea, 1888) lived concentrated in urban centers, mainly in collective, unhealthy dwellings known as cortiços (tenements). Although some isolated informal occupations on hillsides had existed since the mid-19th century, they did not yet have the scale or the social identity that now defines a favela. During the Republic of the Sword, the pressure to "sanitize" central Rio de Janeiro increased. In 1893, Mayor Barata Ribeiro ordered the demolition of the city's largest tenement, the Cabeça de Porco. Evicted and without compensation, thousands of people climbed the nearest hill (Morro da Providência) to build shacks from the scraps of wood left by the demolition.

Years later, already in the Oligarchic Republic, soldiers who had fought in the War of Canudos (1896–1897), in the backlands (sertão) of Bahia, occupied the same hill in Rio de Janeiro while awaiting housing. In Canudos, the army had camped around a hill called Morro da Favela, named after a thorny, hardy shrub very common in the Caatinga called faveleira (or favela). In memory of the battle, the veterans nicknamed the hill in Rio "Morro da Favela." Over time, the term ceased to be a proper name for that hill and came to designate any informal community built under similar conditions.

Contrary to what many people think, the favela is still a type of architecture — from a technical standpoint, it is classified as Vernacular (or organic) Architecture. Vernacular architecture is that which uses locally available materials and traditional techniques, or techniques adapted by the community itself, to meet its housing needs, without the formal design of a specialist. In favelas, houses are built through self-construction and collective work parties (mutirões). Technical knowledge accumulates and is passed on communally, generating inventive solutions for dealing with steep topography (such as hills) and scarce resources. Unlike the planned city, the favela expands organically, resembling the growth of medieval European cities. The space is dynamic and follows the evolution of the family itself: a slab roof becomes the home of the son who got married, which later becomes a commercial point or a leisure area. This mixed-use flexibility (housing and commerce sharing the same space) is one of the biggest trends in contemporary urbanism worldwide.

Out of sheer necessity for survival and adaptation, the favela anticipated modern concepts of urban sustainability:

• Optimized occupation of horizontal and vertical space
• Alleys, lanes and stairways prioritize pedestrians and light modes of transport (such as bicycles and motorcycle taxis), reducing dependence on cars.
• Homes situated very close to workplaces or local commerce, reducing long commutes.

The debate over whether to consider the favela as architecture is strongly political and economic, not merely technical. For a long time, institutions and public authorities treated these areas with terms considered pejorative (such as "subnormal agglomerations," an expression the IBGE used in its censuses from 1991 and replaced in 2024 with "favelas and urban communities"). To deny the favela the status of architecture ignores the fact that it functions as the main housing response produced by the working class itself in the face of State neglect and the high cost of the formal real estate market.

Still within the republican period, we now enter the "subperiod" called the "Vargas Era," which took place between 1930 and 1945.

Vargas Takes Power: A New State and a New Rulebook

Centralization, new ministries and the constitutional fights that followed.

Getúlio Vargas assumed the presidency on November 3, 1930, after the Revolution of 1930, which deposed President Washington Luís and prevented the inauguration of Júlio Prestes. The National Congress, the state assemblies and the municipal councils were closed. The Constitution of 1891 was annulled, and the government came to be exercised through decree-laws. Elected governors were removed and replaced by interventors appointed by Vargas, many of them linked to the tenentista movement, in order to weaken the regional oligarchies. The Ministry of Labor, Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Education and Public Health were created, marking the beginning of state intervention in the social and labor spheres.

The Constitution of 1891 that had been annulled established the Federative Republic (officially named the United States of Brazil) and presidentialism, inspired by the model of the United States. It replaced the imperial system with three independent branches: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. That constitution gave great autonomy to the former states (which ceased to be provinces), allowing them to have their own constitutions, taxes and security forces. The Constitution also separated the country from religion, defining the country as secular; abolished the death penalty (except in military legislation in wartime) and titles of nobility, and guaranteed Habeas Corpus; and finally, the 1891 Constitution put an end to census-based voting (based on income). The vote became universal for men over 21 — with some caveats: the vote was not a right of illiterates, beggars, women, low-ranking military personnel and clergy subject to ecclesiastical obedience. In addition, the vote was open (not secret), which facilitated electoral fraud such as the "halter vote" (voto de cabresto).

Dissatisfied with the lack of autonomy and the loss of political hegemony, the people of São Paulo took up arms against the federal government on July 9, 1932 (the MMDC movement). After almost three months of military combat, the São Paulo troops were defeated, but the government gave way politically and called a National Constituent Assembly. With the promulgation of the Constitution of 1934, which wrote into the constitutional text the secret ballot, women's suffrage (already provided for in the Electoral Code of 1932, and optional for women except those in paid public employment), the Electoral Court (also created in 1932) and the consolidation of labor laws (such as the 8-hour workday and paid vacations), Getúlio Vargas was indirectly elected president by the National Constituent Assembly on July 17, 1934, beginning the Constitutional Government (1934–1937). (Women's voting became compulsory only in 1965, on a par with men's.)

Brazilian Modernism: Design Meets the Tropics

Concrete, light and nature: how modern architecture found a Brazilian voice.

Since Brazil underwent an enormous structural change in this period, it was only fair that architecture should break with the ties of the past. And that is how Brazilian Modernism emerged, whose landmark is the Ministry of Education and Health building (designed in 1936 with Le Corbusier as consultant and completed in 1943).

• The large-scale production of new materials, such as reinforced concrete, steel and glass, made it possible to create lighter, more resistant structures with large open spans
• The central idea that "form follows function" (Louis Sullivan) and the motto "less is more" (Mies van der Rohe) turned buildings into efficient machines for human use, eliminating decorative excess.
• The Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier redefined building with the concept of the house as a "machine for living," summarized in his pillars: pilotis, free plan, free facade, ribbon window and roof garden
• The movement broke with the mixture of historical styles (Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance) of the 19th century, seeking a clean, honest aesthetic oriented toward the present time.
• Strongly driven by the Modern Art Week of 1922, Brazilian Modernism combined European lessons with tropical elements (such as brises-soleil, Oscar Niemeyer's curves and integration with nature).

Unlike Neoclassicism, which imported European models, Brazilian Modernism, although it carries influences from abroad, distinguished itself from other modernisms through its integration with nature. While European and North American modernism (such as the Bauhaus School and the works of Mies van der Rohe) was based on a severe, orthogonal, rectilinear rationalism and the motto "less is more," the Brazilian strand — led by names such as Oscar Niemeyer, Lúcio Costa, Lina Bo Bardi and Affonso Reidy — broke with this geometric rigidity. Unlike the purism of straight lines and white boxes in Europe, Oscar Niemeyer introduced sensuality and plastic, sinuous forms into reinforced concrete, inspired by mountains and the female body. Although he absorbed Le Corbusier's "Five Points" (such as pilotis and free plan), Brazil adapted these ideas to the hot, humid climate. Elements such as brises-soleil (concrete or metal sunshades fixed to the facade) and cobogós (perforated ventilation blocks) ceased to be merely aesthetic and took on an essential bioclimatic function.

Polarization and Control: The Constitutional Government (1934–1937)

Left, right and the legal tools that paved the way to dictatorship.

The Constitutional Government begins with Getúlio Vargas being indirectly elected by the Constituent Assembly for a four-year presidential term. The period was marked by strong ideological clashes between two main groups: the ANL (National Liberating Alliance) and the AIB (Brazilian Integralist Action). The ANL was a left-wing front with strong communist influence, led by Luís Carlos Prestes; the AIB, meanwhile, was a far-right movement of a fascist character, led by Plínio Salgado.

The period was marked by a number of important events, such as: the National Security Law (April 1935); the closing of the ANL (July 1935); the Communist Uprising (Intentona Comunista, November 1935), a series of communist-inspired military revolts in Natal, Recife and Rio de Janeiro that were quickly crushed by the government; and the establishment of the National Security Tribunal (1936), in a context of suspended constitutional guarantees.

The National Security Law (Law No. 38 of April 4, 1935) was a legal milestone enacted in Brazil during the constitutional government of Getúlio Vargas, with the main purpose of defining and punishing crimes against the political and social order. The legal text penalized the violent change of the Constitution or of the government, opposition to public authorities, incitement to strikes, military disobedience and the spreading of "false news" that affected order. The government used the law to tighten political control, allowing the closing of opposition organizations — such as the shutdown of the ANL in July 1935 — and paving the way for the authoritarian hardening that would culminate in the Estado Novo (1937).

The National Security Tribunal (TSN) was an exceptional body established in Brazil by Law No. 244 of September 11, 1936, during the first government of Getúlio Vargas. The function of the TSN was to try political crimes, offenses against the economic and social order, and acts that threatened the country's external security. The TSN was located in the Federal District (at the time, Rio de Janeiro) and was part of the Military Justice. It was made up of six members, including civilian judges, representatives of the Army, the Navy and the Military Justice, and a lawyer. It was abolished on November 17, 1945, with the end of the Estado Novo and the country's redemocratization process.

On the basis of the false anticommunist document known as the Cohen Plan, Vargas canceled the presidential elections planned for 1938, dissolved Congress and issued a new Constitution (1937), inaugurating the Estado Novo dictatorship.

The Cohen Plan was drafted by Captain Olímpio Mourão Filho (a member of the AIB – Brazilian Integralist Action) and publicized by General Pedro Aurélio de Góis Monteiro. The document pretended to be a secret plan for a communist revolution (falsely attributed to the Communist International) to seize power in Brazil. The purpose of the Cohen Plan was to create panic and simulate an imminent "red threat," giving President Getúlio Vargas the perfect pretext to cancel the 1938 elections and carry out the coup d'état of November 10, 1937, establishing the Estado Novo dictatorship.

The Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) was founded in March 1922 in Niterói (RJ) and formally became the Brazilian Section of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1924. Originally named "Communist Party – Brazilian Section of the Communist International (PC-SBIC)," the group accepted Lenin's conditions and was admitted at the Fifth Congress of the Third International (Comintern) in Moscow in 1924. The PCB has Marxism-Leninism as its ideology, positioning itself on the far left of the political spectrum, and advocates overcoming capitalism by revolutionary means and building socialism toward communism. In November 1935, the party took part in the Communist Uprising (Intentona Comunista) — an attempt at armed revolt, influenced by Soviet directives, to establish a revolutionary government in Brazil — which was quickly suppressed by the government of Getúlio Vargas. In 1961 the party adopted the name Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro), and in 1962 a split gave rise to the PCdoB (Communist Party of Brazil), while the original group kept the acronym PCB.

The aim of the Communist International (Comintern) was to unite the communist parties of various countries, overcome capitalism and promote a worldwide socialist revolution along the lines of the Russian Revolution of 1917. On May 15, 1943, it was dissolved by Joseph Stalin as a political gesture to improve the Soviet Union's relations with the Western Allies (the United States and the United Kingdom) during the Second World War.

The Estado Novo: Industrial Ambition Under Authoritarian Rule (1937–1945)

State-led industrialization, propaganda and labor law under dictatorship.

It began with a military-backed coup d'état, using as a pretext the false "Cohen Plan". The Constitution of 1937 was imposed (nicknamed the "Polish Woman," or Polaca, because it was inspired by Poland's authoritarian constitution of 1935), which closed the National Congress and abolished political parties. The federative system lost strength, governors were replaced by federal interventors and the autonomy of the states was eliminated. In 1939 the government created the DIP (Press and Propaganda Department) to control the media, eliminate opposition and promote the image of Getúlio Vargas (notably through the radio program A Hora do Brasil). The regime invested in basic industrialization, founding the National Steel Company (CSN) and the Vale do Rio Doce Company. In the labor sphere, it created the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) in 1943 and the Labor Courts, and instituted the minimum wage. After an initial ambiguous alignment, Brazil entered the war on the side of the Allies in 1942, sending the FEB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force) to fight in Italy. The contradiction between fighting Nazi-fascism in Europe and maintaining a dictatorship at home weakened the government. In October 1945, pressure from the military and the opposition led to the deposition of Getúlio Vargas, opening the way to redemocratization.

The Polaca was drafted by the jurist Francisco Campos, then Minister of Justice. The Polaca was imposed without popular consultation or approval by Congress, making the President of the Republic the supreme authority. It dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, the Federal Senate, the state assemblies and the municipal councils, abolished political parties, banned strikes, instituted prior censorship of the media and reintroduced the death penalty for political crimes.

The Populist Republic: Developmentalism and a Country in a Hurry (1945–1964)

Petrobras, Brasília and the political fights that ended in a coup.

From there begins the Populist Republic (or Fourth Republic) (1945–1964).

The Populist Republic (also known as the Fourth Brazilian Republic or the Republic of '46) was the period of Brazilian history that lasted from 1945/1946 to 1964, between the end of the Estado Novo (Getúlio Vargas's dictatorship) and the Civil-Military Coup that established the Military Dictatorship. The period began with the new democratic rules established by the Constitution of 1946: direct, secret and universal suffrage (excluding illiterates); multi-party politics (where several political parties may exist); independent elections for President and Vice President (a president could be from one party and the vice president from another); and a presidential term of 5 years. The period ensured freedom of expression, of the press and of political association.

The Populist Republic saw the strong presence of leaders with direct popular appeal and nationalist or developmentalist discourse, among them:

• Getúlio Vargas (1951–1954): Known as the "father of the poor," he returned to the presidency by direct vote in 1950. His government was marked by strong economic nationalism, symbolized by the "The oil is ours" campaign and by the formulation of the proposal to create Eletrobras (1954) and the creation of Petrobras (1953), in addition to the raising of the minimum wage.
• Juscelino Kubitschek (1956–1961): Adopted an optimistic developmentalist tone based on the Target Plan (Plano de Metas, "50 years in 5"). Although he opened the economy to foreign capital, his discourse combined the country's modernization, accelerated industrialization and the construction of Brasília to captivate the masses.
• João Goulart (Jango) (1961–1964): Political heir of Getúlio Vargas and leader of the PTB, he advocated the so-called Basic Reforms (agrarian, urban, fiscal and educational) and strong state intervention, with speeches aimed at workers, unions and peasants.
• Jânio Quadros (1961): Used a sui generis populist style — with the little broom as a symbol of sweeping away corruption. He appealed directly to popular moralism and to an anticorruption, nationalist discourse with an independent foreign policy, although he resigned after only seven months in government.

The governments sought to accelerate the country's industrialization and infrastructure (such as the creation of Petrobras and the construction of Brasília). The domestic political scene was strongly influenced by the international alignment with the United States and by the fight against communism.

Some of the events of this period, organized by president:

Government of Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1946–1951)

• Constitution of 1946: Promulgated in September 1946, it restored civil liberties, federalism and liberal democracy.
• Alignment with the US: Placed Brazil in the Cold War context alongside the capitalist bloc.
• Communist Party (PCB) Outlawed: The PCB's registration was canceled in 1947 and the mandates of communist legislators were revoked.
• SALTE Plan: Government program focused on Health, Food, Transport and Energy, with limited results.

Second Government of Getúlio Vargas (1951–1954)

• Creation of Petrobras (1953): Established by Law No. 2,004, consolidating the state oil monopoly under the slogan "The oil is ours."
• Minimum wage increase (1954): Adjusted by 100% by the Minister of Labor, João Goulart, generating strong opposition from business and military sectors.
• Rua Tonelero Attack (August 1954): The journalist Carlos Lacerda was the target of an assassination attempt, resulting in the death of Major Rubens Vaz and triggering a serious political crisis.
• Suicide of Getúlio Vargas (August 24, 1954): Vargas took his own life at the Catete Palace, leaving a famous farewell letter that moved the population and temporarily contained the pressure for a coup.

Government of Juscelino Kubitschek (1956–1961)

• Entry of multinationals: Encouraged the installation of automobile and consumer-goods industries in the country.
• Inauguration of Brasília (April 21, 1960): Moved the federal capital from Rio de Janeiro to the interior of the country, symbolizing developmentalist modernization.
• Break with the IMF (1959): JK broke off negotiations with the International Monetary Fund after the institution demanded unpopular spending-containment measures.

Government of Jânio Quadros (1961)

• Broom Campaign: He was elected with a moralistic anticorruption discourse, adopting an eccentric style.
• President Jânio Quadros decorated the Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara with the Grand Cross of the National Order of the Southern Cross (the highest honorary decoration Brazil grants to foreign citizens) on August 19, 1961. The decoration was part of Jânio's so-called Independent Foreign Policy, which tried to distance Brazil from automatic alignment with the United States during the Cold War and to open doors to commercial and diplomatic relations with various countries. The act generated immense outrage among the military, conservative groups, the UDN and the Catholic Church, who saw the gesture as a dangerous rapprochement with communism. This act contributed to his later resignation.
• Resignation (August 25, 1961): He resigned after only seven months in office, claiming that "hidden forces" were compelling him to leave, in the expectation of returning with more power (a strategy that failed).

Government of João Goulart (1961–1964)

• Legality Campaign (1961): A movement led by Leonel Brizola in Rio Grande do Sul that secured Jango's constitutional inauguration after the military ministers tried to veto it.
• Parliamentary phase (1961–1963): To take office, Jango accepted a parliamentary system that reduced his powers, until the return to presidentialism via a plebiscite in 1963.
• Basic Reforms: Proposal for structural reforms (agrarian, urban, tax and educational) that frightened conservative, business and military sectors.
• Central do Brasil Rally (March 13, 1964): A large public event in Rio de Janeiro where Jango announced decrees expropriating land and controlling profits.
• Military Coup (March 31 – April 1, 1964): Overthrow of João Goulart by the Armed Forces, supported by civilian and conservative sectors, establishing the military dictatorship in Brazil.

The Dictatorship: Concrete, Control and the Economic Miracle (1964–1985)

Repression, rapid growth and the rise of brutalist architecture.

It began after the coup that deposed the democratically elected president João Goulart (Jango).

The period began with the legalist disguise, the strategy of using a facade of constitutional normality, laws and democratic institutions to legitimize arbitrary acts, revocations of mandates and political repression. The regime formally maintained the existence of the National Congress, the Judiciary, the Constitution and elections (although controlled and indirect) to give the impression that the country was still under the rule of law. In order to legislate without going through normal democratic channels, the dictatorship issued exceptional decrees — notably AI-1, AI-2, AI-3, AI-4 and AI-5 — which overrode the Constitution itself and concentrated absolute powers in the Executive. The mandates of deputies, senators and presidents, and the political rights of opponents, were revoked through legal mechanisms forged by the regime itself, attempting to turn political persecution into administrative or legal decisions. The general-presidents often tried to present themselves in civilian dress and with discourses of "restoring order" or "saving democracy," distancing themselves from the stereotype of blatant Latin American dictators. Contrast with real violence: while they tried to maintain a legal and bureaucratic veneer on the surface, the security agencies operated in parallel with illegal methods, censorship, arbitrary arrests, torture and murder.

The changes introduced by Institutional Acts (AI) 1 through 5 were:

• AI-1 (April 9, 1964): Issued right after the military coup, it gave the military the power to revoke politicians' mandates, suspend political rights for up to 10 years and determined indirect elections for the presidency of the Republic (bringing Humberto Castelo Branco to power).
• AI-2 (October 27, 1965): Dissolved all existing political parties and imposed a two-party system (creating ARENA, in support of the government, and the MDB, a tolerated opposition), in addition to increasing the number of justices of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and maintaining indirect presidential elections.
• AI-3 (February 5, 1966): Established that elections for state governors and vice-governors would be indirect (held by the Legislative Assemblies), and determined that mayors of state capitals and of national-security municipalities would be appointed by the executive branch.
• AI-4 (December 7, 1966): Convened the National Congress to debate and approve a new Constitution (promulgated in 1967), which formally incorporated the authoritarian powers of the previous acts.
• AI-5 (December 13, 1968): The most severe and authoritarian of all, signed by President Artur da Costa e Silva. It allowed the president to close the National Congress, suspend the right of habeas corpus in cases of political crimes, decree intervention in states and municipalities, revoke mandates without any restriction and institute prior censorship of the press.

After the promulgation of AI-5, what historians call the "Years of Lead" began. A period of extreme violence, in which there was the closing of Congress, prior censorship of the press, institutionalized torture, murders and political disappearances. The regime structured and used a clandestine and official machine of repression through bodies such as the OBAN, the DOI-CODI and the DOPS.

1. OBAN (Operação Bandeirante) was a center for intelligence, investigation and political-military repression created on July 1, 1969, in São Paulo, during the Brazilian military dictatorship.
   • It had financial resources and material support from São Paulo businessmen, from FIESP and from large companies (such as banks and automakers).
   • In 1970, the structure served as a model and was officially incorporated and transformed into the first DOI-CODI (Information Operations Detachment – Internal Defense Operations Center), a model that was replicated in other states of the country.
2. DOI-CODI (Information Operations Detachment – Internal Defense Operations Center) was the main intelligence, investigation and political repression body of the Brazilian military regime. The DOI was the arm in charge of practical actions, arrests and interrogations; the CODI was the core of analysis, intelligence and strategic planning.
   • The body became widely known for the systematic use of torture, censorship and human rights violations against opponents of the dictatorship, leftist militants and guerrillas.
   • It was at the São Paulo DOI-CODI headquarters (located on Rua Tutóia) that deaths under torture occurred that resonated nationally and internationally, such as those of the journalist Vladimir Herzog (1975) and the factory worker Manoel Fiel Filho (1976). Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra was among the most notorious commanders of the São Paulo unit.
3. DOPS (Department of Political and Social Order) was a political police body in Brazil, created on December 30, 1924 (in São Paulo) and later replicated in several states.
   • It watched over and repressed political opponents, labor movements, foreigners, capoeira, vagrancy and marginalized cultural manifestations.
   • Each DOPS was linked to the state Public Security Secretariats (except in the Federal District, where it was federal).
   • The documents produced by the body have been opened to the public (as at the Public Archive of the State of São Paulo), and former buildings that housed the DOPS in capitals such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte are now the subject of debates and heritage listings aimed at preserving historical memory and human rights.

In response to the hardening of the regime, far-left groups (such as ALN, VPR, MR-8 and VAR-Palmares) adopted armed struggle, carrying out bank robberies, attacks and kidnappings of diplomats (such as the American ambassador Charles Elbrick in 1969) to exchange for political prisoners. Guerrilla leaders such as Carlos Marighella (1969) and Carlos Lamarca (1971) were killed by the security forces.

Alongside state terror, the country experienced high GDP growth rates (above 10% a year) driven by the so-called Economic Miracle and by large public works (such as the Rio-Niterói Bridge and the Trans-Amazonian Highway). The government made heavy use of patriotic boosterism (ufanismo) and achievements such as the 1970 men's football World Cup triple championship to try to anesthetize, or win the support of, part of the population. Censorship controlled newspapers, music, books and theater. To get around the censors' cuts, newspapers such as O Estado de S. Paulo and Jornal da Tarde even published cooking recipes or verses by Camões in the space of banned news.

During the period of the military dictatorship, the types of architecture that stood out most were modernism and brutalism — modernism because it had begun to appear in cities during the previous period, and brutalism, which is closely entangled with modernism. Brutalism is modern, but it is "brutal"... that is: Brazilian brutalism is an offshoot and an evolution of Brazilian modernism. Brazilian brutalism is born from within modernism as a search for greater structural truth, rawness and sculptural force.

Brutalism is considered an "offspring," or an advanced phase, of the Modern Movement. Both share the rejection of the ornamental excesses of the past (such as the Baroque or the Neoclassical) and a commitment to the functionality of buildings. Both classical modernism and brutalism use the principles of international modern architecture, such as the free plan, the independent structure and the technological use of reinforced concrete.

During the "economic miracle," the regime promoted major infrastructure, administrative headquarters and university campuses, using concrete because it is a durable, fast and affordable material for mass construction. Although the style marked the landscape of the period, architects linked to São Paulo brutalism, such as Vilanova Artigas (author of the FAU-USP building, designed in 1961 and inaugurated in 1969) and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, were removed from FAU-USP by Institutional Act No. 5 (AI-5) in 1969.

The Opening: Amnesty, Strikes and the Road Back to Democracy (1979–1985)

How a controlled transition became a mass movement.

The Political Opening (Abertura Política) was the process of controlled transition from the military regime to democracy in Brazil, conducted mainly during the government of General João Figueiredo, and begun with the distensão (decompression) policy of General Ernesto Geisel in 1974.

The period begins with two important milestones: the Amnesty Law and the ABC strikes.

Law No. 6,683, known as the Amnesty Law, was signed on August 28, 1979, by President João Batista Figueiredo, marking a central stage in the political opening of the Brazilian military dictatorship. The law granted pardon for political, electoral and related crimes committed between September 2, 1961 and August 15, 1979. The law benefited opponents of the regime, exiles, banished persons, those stripped of their rights, public servants, union leaders and military personnel punished by Institutional Acts, while expressly excluding those convicted of crimes of bloodshed, defined in the text as "terrorism, robbery, kidnapping and personal attack." The interpretation of the norm generated great legal controversy because it also covered state agents (military personnel and police) involved in acts of repression and torture. In 2010, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) rejected the Claim of Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF 153), upholding the validity of the broad amnesty for both sides, although human rights organizations and the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) criticize this reading.

A Claim of Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF) is an instrument of concentrated constitutional review in Brazil, judged exclusively by the Federal Supreme Court. This instrument serves to prevent or repair harm to a fundamental precept of the Constitution resulting from an act of the Public Authority, or to resolve relevant constitutional controversies over laws and normative acts (federal, state or municipal, including norms prior to the Constitution of 1988); however, it is only accepted if there is no other effective legal means to remedy the harm in a broad, general and immediate way (the principle of subsidiarity).

With the Amnesty, about 2,000 political exiles returned to Brazil (such as Leonel Brizola, Fernando Gabeira and Luís Carlos Prestes), and hundreds of political prisoners were released.

On December 20, 1979, the two-party system came to an end in Brazil. The two-party system had been imposed in 1965 by Institutional Act No. 2 (AI-2), forcing the existence of only two parties: ARENA (pro-government) and the MDB (permitted opposition). Figueiredo's government sought to end the two-party system in order to fragment the opposition, which was concentrated in the MDB. With the extinction of the previous system, several parties emerged or reorganized, such as:

• PDS (Social Democratic Party, successor to ARENA)
• PMDB (successor to the MDB)
• PTB (Brazilian Labor Party)
• PDT (Democratic Labor Party)
• PT (Workers' Party; the party of the well-known Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva)
• PP (Popular Party)

Between 1978 and 1980, numerous demonstrations were taking place in the ABC Paulista (an industrial and highly urbanized region located in the southeast of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region), carried out mainly by metalworkers.

The timeline of the demonstrations in the ABC Paulista was:

• On May 12, 1978, workers at Saab-Scania, in São Bernardo do Campo, stopped work
• The movement spread to other automakers (Ford, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz), inaugurating a new form of direct pressure on employers in defiance of the official union restraints.
• On March 13, 1979, some 180,000 to 200,000 metalworkers folded their arms in the first major urban general strike since 1968.
• The historic assemblies at the Vila Euclides Stadium (in São Bernardo do Campo) consolidated the leadership of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
• A bomb exploded in a car at the Riocentro Convention Center (RJ) during a May 1, 1981 concert, revealing acts by radical sectors of the military's underground apparatus opposed to the opening.
• In 1984, the mass popular movement demanding approval of the Dante de Oliveira Amendment for the immediate return of direct presidential elections took place. The amendment was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in April 1984 for lack of the necessary quorum.
• In 1985, with the failure of the "Diretas Já" campaign, the succession took place indirectly through the Electoral College. Tancredo Neves won the election, marking the end of the cycle of military presidents, although he died before taking office (his vice president, José Sarney, took over).

The New Republic: Democracy, Scandals and Stabilization (1985–present)

A new constitution, a stable currency and a series of political stress tests.

The New Republic (or Sixth Republic) is the period of Brazilian history that began in 1985, with the end of the Military Dictatorship and the process of redemocratization of the country, extending to the present day.

The start of this period is marked by the election of Tancredo Neves and the inauguration of José Sarney in 1985. The first event of great importance in this period is the promulgation of the Constitution of 1988: it is the supreme law of Brazil, promulgated on October 5, 1988, which consolidated the return of democracy to the country, begun in 1985. The Constitution guarantees equality before the law, freedom of expression, an end to censorship, and the prohibition of torture. It establishes universal rights, such as free healthcare with the creation of the SUS (Unified Health System), education, work and social security; it limits the working day to 8 hours a day (a maximum of 44 hours a week), provides the 13th salary [for readers living outside Brazil, this is an extra month's salary paid at the end of the year], unemployment insurance, 120 days of maternity leave and 5 days of paternity leave, in addition to the right to strike; optional voting for young people aged 16 and 17 and for illiterates, in addition to direct and universal voting in two rounds for executive offices; recognition of the territorial and cultural rights of Indigenous peoples and quilombola communities, and the criminalization of racism (a non-bailable and non-prescriptible crime); and finally, the creation of a dedicated chapter on environmental preservation (Art. 225).

After successive failed economic plans against inflation in the 1980s, the Real Plan (1994), implemented under the Itamar Franco government and consolidated by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, brought stability to the currency. The period saw the impeachment proceedings of Fernando Collor (1992) and Dilma Rousseff (2016), as well as major anticorruption investigations such as Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato).

Operation Car Wash was the largest corruption and money-laundering investigation in the history of Brazil, launched on March 17, 2014, by the Federal Police and the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF). It began with an inquiry into networks of currency dealers who laundered money, leading to investigations at a gas station and car wash in Brasília (which gave the operation its name). In the course of the operation, a cartel of large construction companies was uncovered that paid bribes to Petrobras executives and to politicians from various parties in order to obtain overpriced contracts. The task force went through 79 main phases, resulting in dozens of arrests, convictions of executives and high-ranking politicians, and the recovery of billions of reais that had been diverted. The operation was formally ended in February 2021. Over the years, it suffered strong criticism and legal reassessment — especially after the release of messages (known as "Vaza Jato") and decisions by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that annulled several convictions on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction and judicial bias.

Fernando Collor de Mello was impeached in 1992 for a crime of responsibility, driven by allegations of corruption, influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds in a scheme run by his former campaign treasurer, Paulo César Farias (PC Farias). In May 1992, Pedro Collor de Mello (the president's brother) gave an interview to Veja magazine detailing the existence of a corruption and influence-peddling scheme operated by PC Farias inside the government. The National Congress set up a Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI), which revealed that PC Farias was a "front man" for the president and used an "off-the-books" scheme (caixa dois) [caixa dois is a parallel accounting system not declared to government oversight bodies, such as the Federal Revenue Service or the Electoral Court] to pay Collor's personal expenses, including renovations to the president's house and the purchase of a Fiat Elba car paid for with illicit money. The scandal caused outrage across the country. Students and citizens took to the streets with their faces painted in the colors of Brazil (a movement known as Caras-pintadas, the "painted faces") demanding the president's departure. The government was already facing enormous erosion because of the Collor Plan, which included the seizure of the population's savings accounts and financial investments in 1990 in an attempt to contain hyperinflation. On December 29, 1992, shortly before the final vote in the Senate, Collor resigned from office in an attempt to avoid losing his political rights. However, Congress decided to continue the trial; the impeachment was approved, revoking his mandate and making him ineligible for 8 years.

Dilma Rousseff was impeached on August 31, 2016, for crimes of fiscal responsibility, specifically the so-called "fiscal pedaling" (pedaladas fiscais) and the signing of supplementary credit decrees without authorization from the National Congress. The "Fiscal Pedaling" consisted of deliberate delays in the government's transfers of funds to public banks (such as BNDES and Caixa Econômica Federal) to pay for social programs and benefits, which artificially inflated the primary surplus — and, in addition, credit decrees were issued without the prior approval of the National Congress. The impeachment request was accepted in December 2015 by the then Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, and was signed by the jurists Hélio Bicudo, Miguel Reale Júnior and Janaína Paschoal. On April 17, 2016, the Chamber of Deputies approved the admissibility of the process with 367 votes in favor and 137 against. On August 31, 2016, the Federal Senate convicted Dilma Rousseff by 61 votes to 20, revoking her presidential mandate (but preserving her political rights) and making Vice President Michel Temer president.

From Concrete to Climate: Why Brazilian Cities Overheat

Ecology meets architecture: the physics behind urban heat.

A change that began to appear with the advent of modernism was ecology applied to architecture. During the New Republic, this became even more important — at a level never seen before. I will start with the simplest problem:

During the day, solar radiation strikes urban surfaces. The contemporary architecture of Brazilian cities prioritizes asphalt, concrete and dark mineral surfaces, which have a high capacity to absorb and retain heat (low reflectance). At the same time, the elimination of living soil and trees drastically reduces evapotranspiration. Without the moisture of the soil and plants to dissipate the energy, a larger share of sunlight is converted into dry heat in the air.

Historically, Brazilian vernacular architecture (such as houses of rammed earth, or thick walls of stone and lime) used thermal mass. These thick walls acted like batteries, holding heat outside during the day so that it only reached the interior at night. With industrialization and the real estate market's pursuit of quick profit, constructions adopted thin walls of ceramic or concrete blocks (9 to 15 cm thick). With low thermal mass and little resistance to heat conduction, these walls let heat reach the interior quickly, which can overheat homes as early as the morning.

As cities grow vertically, tall buildings come to form what are called urban canyons. This barrier of buildings severely reduces the contact of facades with the open sky and obstructs air currents. In coastal cities, the unchecked construction of high-rise towers along the waterfront blocks sea breezes. Residents of the front row get the wind, while the rest of the city suffers from stagnant air and suffocating heat accumulated between the buildings.

The cooling of cities depends on the ability to return heat to the atmosphere when the sun sets. However, concrete and asphalt release the stored energy extremely slowly. Because urban canyons "lock" this hot air near the ground, heat rises by convection very slowly. This hampers nighttime cooling, causing Brazilian cities to remain hot into the early morning hours.

As indoor environments become very hot, the use of air-conditioning systems increases. To cool the interior, these devices carry out an exchange that expels hot air directly into the streets. This artificial heat raises the outdoor temperature even further, creating a vicious circle that overloads the electrical grid and restarts the cycle the next day, with the city already waking up warm.

The Solutions: Cooling Cities by Design

Vegetation, water, reflective surfaces and smarter street design.

The simplest alternative for solving this is to bet on vegetation. Plants act as true natural air conditioners through evapotranspiration and shading.

Creating continuous strips of vegetation that connect different points of the city is an alternative that should be considered by every municipality. It works as escape routes for the wind, allowing masses of cool air to circulate through the urban fabric. Public tree planting is a fundamental part of thermal comfort and health for those who live in a city: the massive planting of native trees protects asphalt and sidewalks from direct sunlight, reducing surface temperature. Another practice that has emerged is covering building rooftops and facades with vegetation (green roofs and facades), which reduces the heat that buildings absorb and radiate into the surrounding atmosphere.

Investing in water infrastructure is an effective alternative — water has a high thermal capacity and helps stabilize the temperature of the environment. Bringing canalized rivers back to the surface helps cool the ground through natural evaporation; the installation of splash plazas and public fountains to create more humid and cooler microclimates should be on the agenda of public and private infrastructure investment.

Another practice is "Cool Roofs": white or light-colored roofs, or roofs with a reflective coating, that reflect a large share of solar radiation and lower the roof's surface temperature, which reduces the heat transferred to the interior of the building and to the surrounding environment.

Replacing traditional black asphalt with permeable or lighter-colored pavements is a viable option for engineering companies. They retain less heat and allow rainwater to penetrate the soil, keeping it moist and cool.

In the public sphere and in the creation of condominiums, designing tree-lined streets and keeping adequate spacing between tall buildings to avoid the "canyon effect" (which traps hot air and blocks breezes), adopting cross-ventilation in buildings and creating internal courtyards that promote the natural flow of cooler air are measures that favor air circulation and thermal comfort in the area.

The Business Case for Thermal Resilience

What the latest research says about the benefits of adaptation and the cost of disaster losses.

Investing in heat reduction and in the thermal resilience of infrastructure can bring financial returns to companies. More than a sustainability expense, mitigating heat stress in industrial facilities, offices and data centers tends to reduce operating costs (such as cooling expenses), protect the business against extreme climate risks and improve productivity.

A study by the World Resources Institute (WRI), published in 2025 and based on 320 climate adaptation investments (in agriculture, water, infrastructure and health) in 12 countries between 2014 and 2024, estimated that every US$1 invested in adaptation can yield more than US$10.50 in benefits over ten years, with average annual returns of 20% to 27%. According to the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), average annual disaster losses to infrastructure and buildings amount to between US$732 billion and US$845 billion — equivalent to 14% of global GDP growth in 2022 — and, according to the coalition's 2025 report, investing in resilient infrastructure could cut economic losses from disasters in half by 2050.

A simple calculation: if each US$1 invested in adaptation is estimated to yield more than US$10.50 in benefits, then US$1,000 invested would correspond to more than US$10,500 in benefits over ten years, and US$10,000 to more than US$105,000. This figure is the sum of the estimated economic, social and environmental benefits, not a guaranteed financial return to the investor, and it does not depend on the currency in which the investment is made: converting dollars into a weaker currency does not multiply the return, it only changes the unit of account. What changes from one market to another is the asset acquired, the risk and the economic environment.

Where Resilience Capital Could Flow

The sectors that stand to absorb capital as countries rebuild for thermal resilience.

It is essential to understand that this 10.5x benefit-cost ratio for climate adaptation is not captured merely by investing directly in white roofs or niche environmental companies. The real capital asymmetry occurs in the backbone of the economies that will be the great construction sites of this transition. When a country restructures its urban and productive fabric for thermal resilience, capital tends to flow into the foundational sectors.

Agribusiness should integrate biotechnology to withstand water stress; infrastructure and mining tend to supply the raw materials and the execution of the new macro-drainage basins; and the financial sector (large banks and fintechs) tends to finance and issue the credit lines for this colossal transition. Therefore, the climate-resilience thesis does not negate these traditional sectors — it amplifies them and forces them to evolve.

For investors seeking exposure to this transition using dollars (a strong currency), the following markets offer the best avenues of liquidity and infrastructure to absorb this global flow:

• For investment in Brazil: US$1,000 is BRL 5,048.20 (at the October 2026 exchange rate).
• For investment in India: US$1,000 is 94,873.30 Indian rupees.
• For investment in Kuwait (the country with the most valuable currency in the world): US$1,000 is 310.99 Kuwaiti dinars.

For investors who are interested in some of these countries, which I cited because of the disparity in currency valuation:

Brazil: Sectors to Watch

Commodity exporters, utilities and finance in a high-interest-rate economy.

• Agribusiness and Animal Protein: Companies produce in reais (local costs) but sell their output priced in dollars on the international market.Why it is profitable: High margins generated by the currency mismatch. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of beef, chicken and soybeans.
• Infrastructure and Electric Power: The infrastructure and public utilities sector (Utilities) is historically a dividend-generating sector on the Brazilian stock exchange (B3).Long concession contracts adjusted by inflation indices (IPCA or IGP-M), which tends to generate predictable cash flows.
• Mining, Pulp and Oil: Like agribusiness, the extractive and refining sectors profit strongly from the global market.The international price of a barrel of oil and of a ton of ore or pulp is dollarized. When commodity prices rise globally, these companies tend to see their profits in reais rise.
• Financial Sector: Brazil maintains double-digit interest rates (a high Selic), which has historically boosted the financial margins of banking institutions.
• Real Estate and High-Income Retail: This sector tends to benefit specifically in windows of falling dollar and fiscal stabilization.When foreign investors bring in capital and the real appreciates, future interest rates tend to fall. This makes real estate credit and domestic consumption cheaper, which can lead to appreciation in companies in the sector.

India: Sectors to Watch

Manufacturing, clean energy, pharma and digital services.

• Technology Manufacturing: India has been gaining ground as an alternative to China in supply chains. The Indian government implemented the Production-Linked Incentives (PLI) program, which subsidizes large industries — in fact, multinational companies are contributing billions of dollars to build local infrastructure, for example Foxconn and Google.Key segments: Smartphone production, assembly of hardware components and semiconductor plants.
• Energy Transition and Renewable Energy: India is the world's third-largest producer of solar electricity, behind China and the United States, and has a target of reaching 500 GW of installed non-fossil capacity by 2030.The government allows 100% automatic Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this sector. Large Indian players raise billions by issuing dollar-denominated Green Bonds on the international market, facilitating the entry of global funds.Key segments: Solar, wind, transmission infrastructure (grids and batteries) and Green Hydrogen.
• Healthcare, Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals: Known as the "pharmacy of the world," India combines low research and development (R&D) costs with mass manufacturing capacity for medicines and inputs.The sector is highly export-oriented (revenue indexed globally). Investing in dollars in companies that sell to the US and Europe reduces the investor's exposure to fluctuations in the Indian rupee.Key segments: Large private hospital chains (driven by the expansion of health insurance in India) and manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) such as Divi's Laboratories and Dr. Reddy's.
• FinTech and Digital Services (SaaS): With the public UPI instant-payments system, one of the largest in the world by transaction volume, the Indian FinTech market is expanding.Indian software companies (SaaS) serve the global corporate market. They bill in US dollars and spend in Indian rupees (cheaper skilled labor), which can generate predictable net profit margins.

Kuwait: Sectors to Watch

Digital infrastructure, logistics, healthcare and energy.

• Information Technology and Cybersecurity: The government has been digitizing public infrastructure and the petrochemical sector. There is growing demand for Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing and Cybersecurity solutions.
• Logistics, Infrastructure and Special Economic Zones: The national plan includes multibillion-dollar projects such as the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port and the expansion of Kuwait International Airport. The rise of e-commerce increases demand for last-mile delivery logistics and refrigerated warehouses.
• Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Industry: With an aging population and the pursuit of self-sufficiency, the government has expanded incentives for building private hospitals and for local manufacturing of medicines.
• Energy (Oil, Gas and Renewables): The focus has shifted to the modernization of refineries and the transition to solar energy to supply the new smart cities, opening space for foreign technology with dollar investment.

What This Means for Your Strategy

Politics shaped Brazil's cities. Climate resilience is shaping what comes next.

As we have seen through Hannah Arendt and Contractualism, politics is born from the human need to order chaos and establish pacts of survival. If in past centuries the "chaos" to be tamed was civil instability or territorial dispute, the great chaos of the 21st century is the climatic and thermal collapse of our cities. Architecture, which has historically functioned as the showcase of each cycle of power — from the predatory gold of the Baroque and the Imperial arrogance of the Neoclassical, to the developmentalist optimism of Modernism and the authoritarian rawness of Brutalism — now faces its historic ultimatum: bioclimatic adaptation is no longer an aesthetic choice but the only possible pact of survival.

Brazil, with its complex succession of institutional ruptures, is a good laboratory for observing this transition. Our urban history shows that the importation of models (such as concrete walls and heat-absorbing asphalt) has generated a systemic crisis of heat islands and energy inefficiency. On the other hand, the organic intelligence of vernacular architecture — born of pure necessity in the favelas — already anticipated the mixed use, smart densification and low-carbon mobility that now guide urbanism worldwide. The new "modernism" will not be made of pharaonic monuments but of invisible and vital infrastructure: white roofs, living facades, macro-drainage basins and the return of rivers to the surface.

For international capital, understanding this paradigm shift is what separates obsolescence from high profitability. The transition to resilient infrastructure has ceased to be a purely environmental (ESG) agenda and has consolidated itself as an investment thesis with a high benefit-cost ratio. According to the WRI study, every US$1 invested in climate adaptation can yield more than US$10.50 in benefits over ten years — thermal resilience, therefore, is not merely a cost center.

Allocating resources in strategic emerging markets means positioning in the sectors that should absorb the capital flows of this transition: in Brazil, sectors such as agribusiness, infrastructure, mining and finance; in India, technology manufacturing, renewable energy, healthcare and digital services; and in Kuwait, technology, logistics, healthcare and energy.

Ultimately, physical space will always be the reflection of our political and economic choices. The future of architecture, urbanism and the global economy will belong to those who understand that the next great empire will not be built by subjugating nature, but by operating in absolute alliance with it. And the capital that finances the development of this new "social and climate contract" will have a central role in the coming decades.

Turn Signals into Strategy

How trend research helps you see these shifts before they become obvious.

Reading history and data is the first step. Antares Rebirthed tracks news and trends across markets and turns them into research your team can act on. If you want to know where a shift like thermal resilience will land in your sector, get in touch with our research team.