Canadian artist Mark Lewis investigated the streets of São Paulo and gave us his testimony.

"For me one of the most extraordinary things about São Paulo is the sheer number of modern buildings from the 1920's and 30's through to the 1970's. Of course there are the signature buildings by the great architects such as Niemeyer and Lina Bo Bardi. But I have been stunned by the existence of hundreds of other graceful and beautiful buildings, presumably by architects lesser known or long forgotten. I live and work in a city, London, that has an immense and collective hostility to the modern and today there are very few of these kinds of buildings left there. One of my favourite São Paulo buildings is the old Orion rubber factory on Rua Behring, abandoned by the company in the 1980's and now lies empty and rather dilapidated. But  somehow the building still stands proud even though, or perhaps because across the street from it rises the grotesquely oversized 'Temple of Solomon' built by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. The two Orion signs, hollowed out of concrete, sit majestically on top of the building on each of its street sides. On clear Sao Paulo mornings the sun sits behind one of the signs and throws the latter's shadow onto the blue construction fence surrounding the building site of the Temple of Solomon. When the Orion building was designed and built, like many modern buildings of its time, it had the future in mind. I think the Orion Shadow remind us that great buildings like great art, continue to have the future in mind even when defeat seems most likely".