Between trails, streets and blocks: the São Paulo Railway Company and the adjustments to the urban form from the Bom Retiro neighborhood, 1889-1891

• Grant number: 21/02457-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2021
• End date: July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Cristina de Campos
• Grantee: Shelda Moreira Guedes
• Host Institution: Diretoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade São Judas Tadeu (USJT). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century, the city of São Paulo modernized its urban infrastructure, because it plays a role in the production system of the export economy. The city attracts workers, develops a rail transport system and sets up its first factories. The first railroads that cross the city are of interest here, especially the São Paulo Railway Company. The trails of the "English company" crossed areas with pre-existing occupation and stimulated the formation of other areas of occupation in the city. The Bom Retiro neighborhood, close to the English railway station, was impacted by the presence of the tracks, which interrupted the streets that communicated with neighboring areas. Documentation was identified in the Public Archives of the State of São Paulo that deals with the adjustments in the urban form of Bom Retiro due to the changes suffered with the tracks of the São Paulo Railway. The objective of the research is to study the adjustments made in the Bom Retiro urban layout due to the changes imposed by the trails of the São Paulo Railway Company. The qualitative research will be carried out from this previously selected documentary base, and the information will be analyzed from a theoretical-conceptual repertoire of studies on urbanization and the social production of space in São Paulo. The research will be attentive to the presence of the private sector, especially the São Paulo Railway, in the commercialization of urban lots in areas of its property. In this context of intense urban transformations that the research intends to contribute with the studies of urbanization and the participation of the private initiative in the urban structuring of the city of São Paulo.