The Manufactured Architecture of João Filgueiras Lima, Lelé

This study investigates the work and industrial thinking of João Filgueiras Lima – or simply Lelé (Rio de Janeiro, 1932 - Salvador, 2014) – within the context of the workshops for manufacturing building elements that he founded in Brazil between 1978 and 1992. It aims to explore three interrelated levels of his architecture – factories, systems and components – as they constitute the fundamentals of his technical approach, in terms of both conception and production. From the perspective of the architect acting as builder and producer, the study explores how the production process, based on cumulative knowledge built up from continuous experimentation, influenced Lelé’s work. The reason for conducting this study on Lelé is to re-evaluate his contribution through the prism of the operationalization of prefabricated architecture in Latin America; this will bring into question political, economic and social issues as the quintessence of his practice.