Josias and Octavio are walking to the Silva building. It is almost finished: all five floors have been completed, the walls have been erected, doors and windows are in place, and the electrical installation is complete.

The head of Engineering and the Architect walk between the land where the parking lot is being built and the entrance. Countless workers work frantically to show excellence to their bosses.

Moments later, the two of them are inside a studio apartment, this one with plastered walls and laid tile floor. Josias notes that the space is bigger than the old little room in which he lived in Seu Teodoro's building.

"With this space,...