The Trajectory of Attílio Corrêa Lima in Urbanism: Company-City Projects

• Grant number: 24/22096-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Eulalia Portela Negrelos
• Grantee: Bianca Bisinotto Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de São Carlos (IAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research aims to study the conception of architect and urban planner Attílio Corrêa Lima during the developmentalist period, particularly his contributions to the production of company-cities through collective housing projects, aligned with the proposals of the CIAM (International Congress of Modern Architecture) of 1929. Born in Rome, Corrêa Lima graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro in 1925, with specialization at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1930. Despite his premature death in 1943, his career achievements remained significant, from his work on capital cities like Goiânia to his projects for workers' cities such as Volta Redonda and the Cidade dos Motores, which are the focus of this research.Corrêa Lima's final proposal advocated for the production of collective housing alongside the organization of the workers' social structure, achieved through the integration of neighborhoods and concentrated housing. This approach, in turn, aimed to reduce infrastructure costs-essential at the time-while improving investments in transportation and circulation. The study of his work reveals how Corrêa Lima's projects not only addressed the relationship between the social and individual aspects of the urban network but also focused on organizing and facilitating an adequate daily life for workers living in mass, collective housing-housing forms that had previously been associated with slums and poor-quality tenements.In this context, Corrêa Lima sought to integrate comfort and quality into collective housing while optimizing production to reduce costs and construction time. His urban planning efforts, particularly in the creation of workers' cities, are the main focus of this research, which examines his approach to the design of urban environments that could accommodate workers in an efficient, functional, and socially inclusive way.