Architectural culture of São Paulo

• Grant number: 23/16497-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Monica Junqueira de Camargo
• Grantee: Monica Junqueira de Camargo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Alfredo Goldman vel Lejbman
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/20101-0 - cartography of São Paulo City, BP.TT; 24/18738-0 - São Paulo Cartography, BP.TT

Abstract

São Paulo architecture, since colonial times, has been characterized by a tectonic intelligence combining construction techniques with plastic innovation. The scarcity of resources faced at the beginning of colonization, the institutionalization of education linked to engineering schools and the professional link with construction companies helped to consolidate a tradition in the design process with a strong attachment to constructive challenges, opening the field, from the years 1950, for the incorporation, with great particularity, of brutalist ideas, whose developments, to this day, are present in local architectural culture. Be it rammed earth, masonry, exposed concrete, wood or metal structures, they have been explored throughout history, not only technically, but in their plastic potential. The inventory of this production, whether of the built heritage or of the design process of professionals from successive generations, allows us to identify a certain design culture. This research is therefore developed on two interrelated fronts: architectural biographies and an inventory of São Paulo's built heritage.Architectural biographies reveal to us a set of works that, in turn, allow us to examine the relationships between architecture and the city, between peers of a certain generation, with society - clients, institutions, and the public in general - as well as the references and design achievements of the various authors, contributing to the identification of an architectural culture, the construction and review of the history of architecture. At the same time, the extensive set of information provided by these researches will be systematized to be made available on a page on the FAU USP website and in the identification of the built heritage of the city of São Paulo, through Geosampa cartography, work developed in partnership with the City Hall of São Paulo. The insertion of a header in each work in the city, containing the authors, design and construction dates, will add to the various information made available on this platform, a wide-reaching public service, which will support research on different approaches and give visibility to the work of architects in the construction of the urban landscape. (AU)