Significances of public space: the case of Vila Itororó and the debates in São Paulo

• Grant number: 16/00142-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2016
• End date: August 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Ana Claudia Scaglione Veiga de Castro
• Grantee: Caroline de Paula Monteagudo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Inaugurated in 1922 as a palace and a set of rental homes, containing a small private area of leisure, Vila Itororó, in São Paulo, played the residential function for most of the 20th century. From the 1970s, however, we realized at least three times that the state expressed interest in turning it into a space for public use. In 1974, from the project of the architects Claudio Tozzi, Decio Tozzi and Benedito Lima de Toledo ordered by the General Planning Coordination (COGEP); in 1989, when a revitalization of the neighborhood - a contest sponsored by the City of São Paulo (São Paulo Municipal Government) - incorporated the Vila Itororó set in its area of interest; and most recently, from 2006, when the village was finally expropriated by the state government and ceded to PMSP, being subject of a new restoration project with the intention of turning it into a cultural use space, currently being implemented by the Instituto Pedra, a non-governmental organization headed by the architect Luis Fernando de Almeida. Taking Itororó Vila as the axis of research, this project aims to discuss the meanings that the expression "public space" had in each of these moments, through the analysis of the assumptions that guided the guidelines of each proposal. Thus, we intend to address the sense of the concept of public space in order to relate it to urban history and urban policy of the city. (AU)