Author Description

"The title: “Indigenous Technology in Mato Grosso: Dwellings” introduces a subject which is indispensable for any type of Architectural teaching in Brazil. Paulo Mendes da Rocha (Architect and Urbanist), in the presentation of this first edition. [This] book opens us up through all its originality and dignity, but also through all its socio-economic and technological constraint and specificity in relation to Brazilian Indigenous Architecture in terms of each of the ethnicities studied. Indeed, it is precisely this process that brings them out of the dusty limbo of historical references and prejudices, inviting them to enter the universe of local cultures and the dominant civilizations of the globalized and living world of the current age." - Carlos Zibel Costa, Architect (FAU-USP) In his doctoral thesis [...] the author adopted an ethnographic position in the surveying of indigenous house design, seeking sources in bibliographical records and in the extensive field studies made on the Paresí, Bakairi, Myky, Irantxe, Xavante, Bororo and Umutina people as well as the indians from the Xingu National Park (the Yawalapiti and the Kamayurá). The survey of the drawings is one of his most important contributions, which is incorporated into the set of studies that are consolidated references in the field of architecture itself [...].