Joaquim Cardozo, who had a prodigious memory, knew all his poems by heart and did not modify them, not even a single comma, when he recited them publicly at different periods.I'm not really a poet.
— Joaquim CardozoHe lived with modernist poets, such as Manuel Bandeira and João Cabral de Melo Neto, having published several books between 1946 and 1975, using as themes mainly his native Recife and the Brazilian Northeast.
— Joaquim CardozoSpecializing in structural calculations, he was notable for his collaboration with architect Oscar Niemeyer in the construction of Brasília and the Pampulha Modern Ensemble.
After Von Tilling's death, still a student, Joaquim Cardozo was put in charge of the irrigation project for one of the islands of the São Francisco River.
In 1934, Joaquim Cardozo joined architect Luiz Nunes's team, specially hired to organize the Directorate of Architecture and Construction, the first governmental institution in Brazil created for this purpose.
A pioneer of modern architecture, Cardozo renewed the structural design of reinforced concrete and calculation methods, contributing to the evolution of civil engineering.
In Recife, notable works include the Luiz Nunes Pavilion, currently the headquarters of the IAB (formerly the Institute of Death Verification of the old School of Medicine), and the Olinda Water Tower, dated 1936, which are among the earliest examples of modern Brazilian architecture.
— Joaquim CardozoCardozo's involvement with architecture was not limited to his role as a structural engineer of buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer, Luiz Nunes and other architects.