"Academicist architectural visual culture and the great avenues: a comparative study"

• Grant number: 24/02944-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Joana Mello de Carvalho e Silva
• Grantee: Luciana de Mello Miranda
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Academic architecture, made between the late 18th and the early 20th centuries, is a result of profound changes that occurred in European society and represents the new industrial bourgeoisie's search for its own identity. Given this situation and the expansion of European imperialism, it is noticeable the diffusion of this type of architecture on a global scale. From a material perspective, the modernization of means of production and transport is an essential factor for this process. However, regarding the dispersion of a common stylistic logic, the role of textual and visual means of communication stands out, especially photography, whose social role, in this context, corroborates bourgeois visibility and the narrative about modernity as much as architecture does.Taking this into consideration, this scientific initiation project aims to articulate and understand the diffusion of an academic architectural visual culture through photography between the 19th and 20th centuries. To this end, a case study will be carried out on the architecture from Avenida Central, built in Rio de Janeiro between the years 1903 and 1906, in a comparative analysis with published photographs of important avenues from the same period, in order to recognize and articulate relationships which reveal the existence of the same design logic and lexical repertoire.