João “Lelé” Filgueiras Lima is a public architect. Since his formative years on the construction sites of Brasília (1960) until today, his most remarkable works have been created for the public sector. This aspect of his career led him to take a very plastic approach that always relied upon economical building strategies, and often required new techniques and industrial materials.

Lelé’s interest in industrial building components led him to design pieces of his own, which were used in some early public works, such as the Taguatinga Hospital (1965) and the Secretariats of Bahia Administration Center (1973). Lelé’s breakthrough came when he designed hospitals for the SARAH Kubitschek Foundation. For Brasília’s Hospital for Diseases of the Locomotor System (1980), he used an integrated approach to fulfill the normative standards for a rehabilitation facility, to keep to a tight budget, and to create shade from the extreme heat of Brasília. A gap between the different levels allows all the recovery rooms to have access to a well-shaded green terrace. Structures and cladding are made from prefabricated reinforced concrete, articulated by one-storey-high Virendell beams.