This is an internationally important art museum with an excellent collection, but Bo Bardi’s interior has been trashed. Her admittedly difficult concept of hanging paintings on vertical glass panels wedged into concrete cubes has been abandoned - with only one painting displayed thus, for old times’ sake. The glass panels meant that the huge column-free clear spaces on each floor could be fully appreciated, and created a glittering, magical ambience. Today, the interior is a sea of grey-painted MDF. It’s enough to make you weep. But for all that, MASP is a must-see if you are in Sao Paulo.

In such cities, you are faced with a conundrum: can a light sprinkling of inspired architecture rescue the whole? In the case of Sao Paulo, the answer is no. The Niemeyer and Bo Bardi buildings are wonderful - and there are some good cultural buildings elsewhere in the city by a younger generation - but neither they nor the relics of the city’s 19th century past can make up for the extraordinary sprawl of the suburbs, nor the mediocre nature of the dense, high-rise centre. I could happily live in Belem, say, but I couldn’t wait to get away from Sao Paulo.