摘要:Goiânia was built to redefine the administrative logic of the Goiano territory. It was raised to break up the connections defined by the local oligarchy and consolidade an articulation with the economy based on the country’s southeast. The new capital was the central element in a universalizing discourse which announced the benefits brought about by the instauration of a new productive mentality in the State of Goiás. However, despite the eloquence with which the new capital was promoted, several elements which were not inserted in the original project started to emerge. Such elements represent the particular demands present in the lives of the migrants who were enlisted to work in the construction of such an important edifice. Thus, the universality promoted by the official discourses ended up interacting with the particularity derived from “supporting” actions. Such movement affected the originally-delineated form of the new capital. Certainly, the modification in the city’s appearance is evidence of alterations also in its essence. In such context, a city built upon principles of “reason” ended up revealing traces of “insanity.” Key words: city, universal-particular, appearance-essence, reason-insanity.