Colonial asylums in the State of São Paulo: from heritage to cultural territories

• Grant number: 21/03248-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina da Silva Schicchi
• Grantee: Bianca Maria Batista Janotti
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (PUC-CAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Between 1930 and 1960, the leprosy treatment policy implemented in the state of São Paulo became a model for the other Brazilian cities. São Paulo was one of the pioneer states and the last to abolish this form of treatment by isolation. However, the sanitary control of infectious diseases, in this period, wasn't an isolated action, but rather was part of a series of proposals from the state and municipal governments, which used segregation as a solution to many social problems that could slow urban growth and development, in light of the hegemonic presence of the coffee export economy and the consolidation of the city as the place of commercial capital. The solution through the construction of colony-asylums was put into practice in the 1920s and they are the objects of study of this research. They were designed to work in a network, in order to cover all areas of the state, distributed in four areas of São Paulo territory and in five asylums-colonies located in different cities: Santo Ângelo, Padre Bento, Pirapitingui, Cocais, and Aimorés - built between the 1920s and 1930s -, listed by Condephaat between 2016 and 2018. This memory is linked to a succession of places, which demands a set study approach, but also a reading of the very territories where they are inserted, because it is understood that they have not remained unrelated to local political and planning processes. Thus, the main objective of the research is to study colony-asylums as a complex equipment on an urban-territorial scale. Based on a preliminary investigation of the five listed asylums, two of them were selected for case studies, the Santo Ângelo and the Aimorés, where we will seek to understand the nature of these objects and the transformations that occurred in the treatment of the diseases associated with them, which culminated, in many cases, in a condition of obsolescence. It is intended to evaluate the conditions of use, appropriation and the current meanings of these complexes, both their role in the territorial development of the municipalities where they are located and, most importantly, for the local populations. The methodology is based on historical-analytical and empirical methods. As a result, it is expected to amplify the discussion about the colony-asylums as urban-territorial complexes and to point out new criteria for apprehension of the cultural meanings related to them, as well as to contribute to the improvement of the preservation criteria of the so-called "marginal heritages".