Bricks used by German and Portuguese craftsmen in the city of São Paulo from 1850 onwards

• Grant number: 12/51173-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2013
• End date: October 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Principal Investigator: José Eduardo de Assis Lefèvre
• Grantee: Adriane de Freitas Acosta Baldin
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to give evidence that the use of brick in the full construction of public and private buildings began, on a regular basis, from 1855 in São Paulo. At that time, the city received an expressive number of construction craftsmen from Germanic and Portuguese origin. These professionals were contracted by the government of the Province of São Paulo and raised in their home countries by the company of Senator Vergueiro. From 1855 these construction professionals gradually made use of brick instead of mud. Before 1850, it was possible to find German craftsmen, from a previous immigration, especially of 1828 and 1838, working for the Province of São Paulo. From this hypothesis a new picture is created in the urban history of the city of São Paulo, which can not be overlooked and is fundamental to the understanding of how urban growth occurred in the great metropolis from these new guidelines. The Italian immigration and the advent of the railroad were related to the use of brick in São Paulo works. Possibly these were not the first protagonists of this story, but contributors of this process of change in the construction techniques, started in the 1850s with the German and Portuguese labor. (AU)