imposed by the solidity of the built material, because it is in these free spaces that all the possibility of indetermination lies. Affirming the leading role of free spaces as an essential urban reality implies that what a building looks like is completely irrelevant. This is because the value of architecture is not in its image or materiality, but in the free spaces that it shapes and the relationships that it creates. Creating architecture consists, therefore, of building free spaces to host human events. There is a beautiful and well-known poem by João Cabral de Melo Neto which describes, in my opinion, the essence of the work of an architect:
2. João Cabral de Melo Neto, “Fábula de um arquiteto,” in: Obra completa: volume único. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Aguilar, 1994, pp.345–346.
Architecture like building doors, that open; or like building openness; building, not to isolate or imprison, nor building to keep secrets; building open doors, as doors; homes simply doors and roofs. 2 Building doors instead of walls, openings instead of closures, continuity instead of breaks, integration instead of segregation. Cities resulting from this type of architecture are environments that promote collective life better than the ones we now inhabit. Although cities without walls, with open doors, only exist in the domain of literary imagination, the power of this poetic image inspires the building of spaces with greater freedom. If cities like this someday become a reality, it will not be the result of grand urban gestures, but the sum of small actions that build each of the spaces that shape them. The task of expanding the supply and the quality of free spaces that shape the daily experience of the city is therefore a matter of each individual architectural gesture, each built element. Building openness, not only as a poetic image but as a concrete action, is the architecture we need today.
Bruno Santa Cecília (Belo Horizonte-mg, 1977) is an architect and urbanist (2000). He holds a master’s in project theory (2004) and a doctorate in theory, production and experience of space (2016) from the School of Architecture at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), where he is also a professor in the Project Department. He is also a partner-holder at Arquitetos Associados. He lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.