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Construction, architecture and urban configuration of Campinas in the 1930s and 1940s - the role of four modern engineers

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Author(s):
Sílvia Amaral Palazzi Zakia
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Doctoral Thesis
Press: São Paulo.
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI)
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Mario Henrique Simao D Agostino; Monica Junqueira de Camargo; Sylvia Ficher; José Tavares Correia de Lira; Silvia Ferreira Santos Wolff
Advisor: Mario Henrique Simao D Agostino
Abstract

This paper analyses how the architectural production and political action of four engineers contributed to the spatial modernization process of the city of Campinas in the 1930s and 1940s. The studied period coincides with the time of the preparation and implementation of the Urban Improvement Plan, developed by the urban planner Prestes Maia and commissioned by the municipal power. Among the group of professionals involved in the modernization project of the city, the participation of the engineers Eduardo Badaró, Hoche Neger Segurado, Lix da Cunha and Mario Penteado stood out. The first engineer, who worked for the city hall, was responsible for implementing the plan, and the other engineers represented the most distinguished architecture offices in the city. It is of great interest to understand how the architectural production of these engineers was carried outand investigate the factors involved in its creation: conceptual and artistic references influenced by the late echoes of the clash between modern and academic in the early decades of the twentieth century that motivated engineers and architects in the search for new paradigms inspired by the European avant-gardes; the material resources having in the reinforced concrete a new determinant in the construction system; the inheritance of different academic backgrounds; the economic relations closely related to the industrialization of the city; the political strategies for the legitimation of the implementation of the urban modernization plan; the actions of the newly founded professional entities in the process of assertion of the professional category, and finally, the demands and aspirations of their clientele. By addressing the circumstances surrounding the transformation of the urban space, having these professionals as mutually responsible for all these changes, the investigation brings up a reflection on an idea of modernity that goes beyond the arts, does not follow a smooth evolutionary path and, above all, that recognizes the existence of various architectural categories, representing many streams of a multifaceted modernity. (AU)