Daniel Barber explores alternative visions of modernity in architectural projects in Brazil from the 1930s and 1940s that embraced, rather than excluded, climate. This architecture, attentive to cultural desire as well as offering a different kind of functionality, embodied a counter-ideology to carbon dependency. Barber urges us to think about how to make buildings exhilarating through innovative features—such as the “irresistible staircase”—that can prove a compelling material aid to sustainable habits.