Carmen Portinho editor of Brazilian modern architecture: her work in PDF magazine and the dissemination of Brazilian modern architecture (1932-1943)

• Grant number: 21/01131-8
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2021
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal researcher: Rafael Augusto Urano de Carvalho Frajndlich
• Grantee: Caroline Rodrigues Alves
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FEC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The engineer and urban designer Carmen Portinho (1903-2001) had an important contribution to the introduction and sedimentation of Modern Architecture in Brazil. A part of this contribution was made through the publication of Prefeitura do Distrito Federal Magazine, the PDF magazine.The review was created in 1932 as part of Diretoria de Engenharia da Prefeitura do Distrito Federal and was separated into three mains subjects: architecture, engineering, and urban planning. During the five years that Portinho was responsible for the architecture section, many illustrious modern architects were published. Names like Lucio Costa, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, and Pierre Jeanneret were constants in PDF pages.The magazine was essential for the embracement of Modern Architecture in Rio de Janeiro and all Brazil, reaching between 1932 and 1937 the status of most important architectural publications of the period. PDFs relevance increases for introducing, in the thirties, a coherent view of Brazilian modern architecture, which will in 1943 become the official view of Brazilian modern architecture thanks to the MOMA exposition Brazil Build.This research seeks to investigate Portinho's contribution as editor of PDF magazine and how this activity has collaborated for the disclosure and dissemination of the Modern Architecture in Brazil between PDFs first issue in 1932, and the realization of MOMA's exhibition Brazil Build in 1943.