Dispatch from Rio de Janeiro: Catedral Metropolitana de Sao Sebastiao

If Asia and the Middle East are the future of Dystopian Architecture, a style evoking a future gone bad, then Brazil must be the grandfather. Many of Brazil's notable modern buildings were completed in the 70s, coinciding with the "Brazilian Miracle." That was a time of intense industrial and economic expansion, similar to the sites of contemporary Dystopian Architecture.

The Catedral Metropolitana de Sao Sebastiao is in Rio de Janeiro, and was designed by the architect Edgar de Oliveira de Fonseca. (amazingly little is written about this architect on the internet).

The forbidding grey concrete, perforated with flaps that don't appear to let any light in, suggests a self-contained city of identical units, stretching to the sky. The angle at which the cathedral meets the ground is slightly sinister, but being truncated at the top vs. coming to a point seems to make it a bit friendlier.














Upon entering the cathedral, you see that light does come in to illuminate vast stained glass windows. As the stained glass reaches all the way to the ceiling, they come to a cross.



















The perforations do indeed let light in but just a little, so that the interior space is still cloaked in darkness.