Paulista Railway Company an investigation about the history and preservation of railway workers housing

• Grant number: 13/23935-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: February 28, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Maria Lucia Caira Gitahy
• Grantee: Luciana Massami Inoue
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to study the railway worker villages of the Paulista Company, their social history and to discuss the preservation of them. Instead of a comprehensive study of all railway worker villages spread in São Paulo state (a heritage of around 6.000 houses), we preferred to focus only on 6 (six) railway worker villages of the same company, the Paulista Company. This company was the first one to be established with Brazilian capital by the São Paulo coffee planters. Important Brazilian engineers, such as Adolfo Augusto Pinto and Antônio Francisco de Paula Souza worked in the company. In brief, the Paulista Company had a great influence in geographical, political, economical and social areas. Reading the scarce bibliography about railway worker villages in Brazil, we chose initially six villages to analyse more accurately. They were chosen because they present a considerable number of houses and they are all located geographically close to each other, in the core of São Paulo state. The cities where the villages are located are: Itirapina, Brotas, Dois Córregos, Jaú, São Carlos and Rincão. The analysis of such villages embrace two main goals: the first aim is to illuminate the social and architectonic history of these 6 (six) railway worker villages of Paulista Company; and the second aim is to verify their current conservation status, which is linked to the discussion of preservation of worker villages, including the actions toward conservation (or not) of each of the listed buildings. There is a visible parallelism between the railway worker villages and the industrial worker villages, built in São Paulo city at the same period, so it is thought that the object of our study is important for the preservation of the industrial heritage.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

INOUE, Luciana Massami. End of the line? Railway worker villages of Companhia Paulista (1868-1961): a research about history and preservation. 2017. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI) São Paulo.