From Victorian London to Postmodern São Paulo: The Housing Crisis and the Late Neoliberalism.

• Grant number: 25/02330-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2025
• End date: October 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Leandro Silva Medrano
• Grantee: Ana Caroline Meerr Alves
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

New economic systems and of production generate changes in the conformation of human settlements, that way, the Industrial Revolution that occurred in Europe and the consolidation of capitalism system generated new housing issues in urban agglomerations of large industrial cities of the period, like the neoliberalism and its subsequent crises according the new challenge about this theme. For Friedrich Engels, the lack of housing is inherent in the exploration capitalist system, and in an analysis of post-industrial revolution cities, the urban planner and geographer Peter Hall describes in second chapter of his book Cities of tomorrow: An intellectual history of urban planning and design since 1880 the horrors in victorian London, bringing light to 19th century housing issues. In the last decade, the urban crisis coming from the neoliberal system showed new challenges to the urban scene, whether in slums or on the streets of large urban centers, like the contemporary São Paulo, with the increase in the housing deficit, spoliation and consequent peripheral expansion. The present study aims to understand the new housing issues in late liberalism based on comparisons between 18th century London, the largest urban center of its time, and post-modern São Paulo, the largest urban center in Latin America in the 20th century. (AU)