A craftsman in the urban space of São Paulo: Rizkallah Jorge Tahan (1895-1949)

• Grant number: 13/23769-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: March 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Manoela Rossinetti Rufinoni
• Grantee: Renata Geraissati Castro de Almeida
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Through textual, oral and iconographic sources, this research intends to reconstruct the trajectory of the immigrant of Armenian-Lebanese ancestry Rizkallah Jorge Tahan (1868-1949). The research seeks to compile and analyze his interventions in the urban space of São Paulo. Rizkallah landed at the port of Santos in 1895 and unlike most of the immigrants of his nationality that became peddlers when arrived in Brazil, he choose to work with the copper smelter, which was already his professional activity in his homeland. After three years in the capital, he inaugurated the "Casa da Boia", that was the main place to the commercial activity linked with the sanitation. The artifact "float" was a breakthrough for the paulista society that allowed its rapid proliferation and, consequently, the enrichment of Jorge Rizkallah, enabling it to carry out a series of works in the centers "old" and "new" of the capital, which are the focus of this research.