The controversial new sex museum located in Rio de Janeiro, the Cidade do Sexo (“City of Sex”), designed by Brazilian architect Igor de Vetyemy, is located right off Copacabana Beach. The museum has caused a rift in Rio de Janeiro, a city renowned for its overt sexuality that is also trying to disassociate itself from its ties to the sex trade.

Rosinha Matheus, governor of Rio and evangelist, is seeking to separate the city’s sexual reputation by trying to crack down on sex tourism. Matheus recently prohibited the sale of postcards featuring naked women.

While she has not yet made a comment on the new plans for the interactive sex museum, it is assumed that she will most likely be displeased.

Vetyemy said the museum is to feature sex “capsules” and even a swingers’ club all inside an enormous white postmodern phallus-shaped building.

Vetyemy, 25, an Oxford University-educated architect, says that Brazil is very connected to sex and yet they have no museum to commemorate their national sexuality. Vetyemy has the support of the city’s mayor, as well as his fellow architect British Nigel Coates who is working on the museum’s Body Zone. Coates believes the museum’s construction is essential to updating Rio in order to maintain its longstanding tradition as an architecturally modern city.