Cognopolis - Iguaçu, Iguassu Falls Area newest neighborhood

Waldo Viera, in white, with white beard and me (Jackson Lima) also with a white beard in the Holotheque, CEAEC, Cognopolis, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil

If you have been following my articles and postings about the Administrative regions of Foz do Iguaçu, you will have noticed that I have been writing about several of the city's "bairros" and their regions. Today I want to bring to your attention a very special neighborhood called COGNOPOLIS - Greek for "Knowledge City". It seems, from what I have gathered that the City Government has already approved most plans and for the new neighborhood of town to get its "Birth Certicate" all that is needed is for the City Council or Counsel to pass the law creating the barrio or neighborhood. Officially it is going to be part of the RURAL AREA SOUTH in Region 12.

The word Cognopolis has began to be used rather openly in correspondences, snail mail packages and postmen and postwomen, pizza delivery personnel and other people who specialize in address-finding are beginning to be acquainted with this "something new" happening in town.

Back in 1995, I met the gentleman dressed in white, with a white beard when he first moved to Foz do Iguaçu and said that the area had been chosen for a big investment and he said that the investment would be into the 13 million USD mark. At the time a little symbolic foundation stone was laid down. Soon small buildings began to show up. Among them several laboratories for self-experimentation in fields that might seem strange for most humans like: projectiology (out of body projection), multidimensional assistenciality (some of these appeared in my list of what-to-do for the Iguassu Falls Tri-National Area).

The laboratories were followed by a larger building that seems to snake along the terrain on the banks of the Tamanduazinho (Little Anteater) Creek. This waving and snaking kind of building received the name of Holocycle to house a Holotheque or a "thek" (collection) of "everything" (holos -in Greek). The Holotheque has a collection of thousands of dictionaries (language dictionaries, thematic dictionaries, special dictionaries) plus, books of all kinds on many subjects. There is one of the largest privately owned collection of comic books in Brazil. The holotheque is really worth a visit.

Back to the Cognopolis - the Holocycle is going to be just a litttle piece of Cognopolis. There are, as of this posting eight gated horizontal communities to house more than 600 people who have com from Brazil, Argentina and from as far as the US, Europe and China. The upper photo shows the newest project to be carried on in Cognopolis. It will be called Villa Conscientia and will be divided into a residential and a commercial sector. The commercial sector will have shops but also a  cultural complex. It will include a Theater, the City's first ever and - remember the Holotheque? It will come to Villa Conscientia - since the Holocycle has become too small for what is done there (The Conscientiology Encyclopedia, for instance).

The upper photo shows an artistic rendering of the area. The project brings to mind Lucio Costa's concept of a City with wings like a plane and like Brasilia where those business and residential sectors will be located on the plane's North or South Wings. It is interesting that the project for the theater and buildings in the commercial sector have been drawn by Brazil's best known architect and living legend Oscar Niemayer - remember Brasilia again? The new projects will cost another 20 million USD. "The money will show up" says Waldo Vieira "in the same way that the 13 million I announced that day did".