Theory of Architectural History
EAHN 7th International Meeting, Proceedings, 2022
This paper contrasts comparative histories of architecture, prevalent from the 19th and 20th cent... more This paper contrasts comparative histories of architecture, prevalent from the 19th and 20th centuries, to the critical method of history that is claimed by recent works. Comparative history arose out of the Ideal- ist philosophy of history and combined its deterministic narrative with a disciplinary bounding of architecture that followed modern assumptions about decision-making in design. Critical history, on the other hand, is a materialistic approach that sees the discipline as one aspect within broad- er social forces. Whereas critical history may lay claim, nowadays, to be- ing the only proper form of historiography, comparative histories were more closely linked to the methods and categorizations of the discipline of architecture. Some 21st century architectural history textbooks, com- mitted as they were to the critical method, nevertheless allowed Idealistic determinism to creep into their narrative structure. I argue this creep is not a shortcoming of these individual works, but a consequence of the contradictions between the non-disciplinary project of critical history and its uncertain place in the professional architectural education. I further develop on this contradiction by comparing it to the broader problem of how the critical history of architecture relates to supporting disciplines such as building archaeology, the archaeology of architecture, or the scholarship of vernacular environments. These fields interact with histo- ry by providing source material and preliminary interpretations, yet they have an uneasy relationship to critical history due to their partial reliance on concepts and categories developed in the professional practice of archi- tecture. The inability of critical architectural history to come to terms with the historical legitimacy of its supporting disciplines is akin to its inability to acknowledge the persistence of Idealistic assumptions in textbooks that cater to the professional education market.
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EAHN 6th International Meeting, Jun 24, 2021
In spite of the dispute between Saverio Muratori and Manfredo Tafuri, and of the ever-widening sp... more In spite of the dispute between Saverio Muratori and Manfredo Tafuri, and of the ever-widening split that has characterised the global scholarship of architecture ever since, Italy gave rise to several methods of typo- morphological studies founded upon both rigorous historiography and a coherent theory underpinning the operative use of this historical knowledge in architectural design. This paper argues that the Italian 'school'—for want of a better word—is perhaps unique insofar as it defines a clear scope of objects and methods pertaining to the disciplinary field of architecture as a whole, thus providing a unified framework for both historiography and design. Yet, this Italian 'school' of typo-morphological history and theory is diverse, exposing rifts between traditionalists and modernists. The former are tributary of Aldo Rossi's postmodernist formal relationships derived from a concept of 'collective memory,' whereas the latter adopt Saverio Murat...
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Universitas Humanas, Jan 1, 2010
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Portugal e Brasil
Revista de morfologia urbana, Apr 4, 2024
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XV Seminario Docomomo Brasil, 2024
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Olhares contemporâneos sobre a arquitetura vernácula / popular, 2022
No limiar da industrialização de Portugal durante a idade da monarquia liberal, no século XIX, em... more No limiar da industrialização de Portugal durante a idade da monarquia liberal, no século XIX, em torno à adoção oficial do sistema métrico e durante o ciclo de expansão dos caminhos de ferro, a tipologia edilícia de base assume novas formas na urbanização periférica de cariz especulativo. Esse contexto não costuma ser incluído no universo da arquitetura vernácula de produção autônoma, mas tampouco pertence ao escopo da construção verdadeiramente seriada, moderna e industrializada, e nem, no mais das vezes, ao da arquitetura erudita « de arquiteto ». Nesta comunicação, apresento um tipo de casa de morada do século XIX português do ponto de vista da sua inclusão no espectro vernáculo, e argumento que ele representa uma transição espontânea desde soluções mais antigas, produzida por agentes inseridos em linhagens produtivas tradicionais. O objeto de estudo em questão é um tipo de casa corrente com testada de aproximadamente 40 palmos (9 metros), com pequenas variações para mais ou para menos. Esse tipo é predominantemente atestado de meados do século XIX até o início do XX em tecidos de expansão suburbana nas Beiras, como na área de Montarroio e Montes Claros em Coimbra, nos cais de Aveiro, ou ainda em alguns projetos seriados na vila ferroviária do Entroncamento.
Este tipo de casa corrente, atestado no limiar cronológico e conceitual da modernização industrial, é um caso extremo importante para se debater o escopo da noção de « arquitetura vernácula » e a metodologia do seu estudo. A vasta bibliografia que se ocupa da morada operária e daquela burguesa2 dá pouca atenção à modularidade do parcelamento do solo e à interdependência entre dimensões de testadas de lotes e tipos edilícios. Todavia, essa interdependência é amplamente atestada na história da arquitetura tradicional portuguesa, desde as vilas medievais planeadas com lotes de 25 palmos3 aos « chãos » suburbanos do Renascimento com seus 30 palmos4 e aos diversos módulos joaninos, pombalinos e micaelenses de 20, 40 e 50 palmos. De facto, a estabilização dos 40 palmos como módulo de parcelamento do solo suburbano é concebível no quadro de um processo de ordem emergente no qual agentes da construção especulativa descentralizada ocupam um espaço escassamente condicionado quer por normativas urbanas, quer por interesses especulativos de grande porte. A casa corrente de 40 palmos ocupa o nicho de uma arquitetura vernácula madura capaz de responder à acelerada expansão urbana do século XIX, mas antes de a prática construtiva descentralizada ter sido excluída dos principais processos de urbanização pelos grandes empreendimentos especulativos ou públicos.
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Journal of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism
Traditional towns in Portugal and Brazil have evolved a finely tuned coordination between, on the... more Traditional towns in Portugal and Brazil have evolved a finely tuned coordination between, on the one hand, modular dimensions for street widths and lot sizes, and on the other, a typology of room shapes and layouts within houses. Despite being well documented in urban history, this coordination was in the last century often interpreted as contingent, a result of the limited material means of pre-industrial societies. But the continued application and gradual adaptation of these urban and architectural patterns through periods of industrialization and economic development suggests that they respond both to enduring housing requirements and to piecemeal urban growth. This article surveys the persistence of urban and architectural patterns up to the early 20th century, showing their resilience in addressing modern housing and urbanization requirements.
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The morphology of the traditional Portuguese town arises in the Middle Ages and is similar, in it... more The morphology of the traditional Portuguese town arises in the Middle Ages and is similar, in its formation, to most Western European town-making processes spurred by defensive and commercial needs. The traditional Portuguese town supports a single base building typology for private use, which remained relatively stable from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. The morada de duas casas (two-house dwelling) thus formed is also known as habitação de frente estreita (narrow-frontage housing). The habitação de frente estreita is subsequently developed into the morada de casas altas (tall-house dwelling) as well as into the habitação de frente larga (broad- frontage housing). As a railway town, the initial urban and architectural growth of Beirã is rapid and homogeneous. A few pre-existing rural storage buildings, known locally as furdões, have survived as ruins. A minimal street network articulates a regular parcel pattern that has evolved in the same way as the medieval Portu...
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Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Nov 2020
This article outlines the formation of architectural theory in Portugal and Brazil during the nin... more This article outlines the formation of architectural theory in Portugal and Brazil during the nineteenth century, arguing that such theory was initially contained within the social circle and methodological scope of literary history. It makes this case by following the architectural discourses of writers, literary critics, and ethnographers. This investigation reveals an evolving set of architectural references and methods with which to approach the built environment, while also raising challenges for the cross-disciplinary appropriation of architectural theories. The critique of architectural character in Portugal and Brazil from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries derives much of its motivation and methodology from literary history and criticism. Moreover, it plays out to a great extent within literary circles, even as a Portuguese-language architectural press was emerging during the Belle Époque. I seek to show here how traditionalist architecture in Portugal and Brazil has a longer historical background and clearer theoretical roots than some scholarship on the topic tends to assume. Portuguese-speaking architects and architectural critics appropriated the goals and perspectives of literary historians, formulated long before the rise of traditionalist architectural styles. This appropriation could be seen in an implicit dialogue between Belle Époque architectural traditionalism and ethnographic portrayals of national character construed throughout the second half of the nineteenth century.
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Grove Art Online, 2020
Brazilian architect. He was an influential eclectic architect highly active in Rio de Janeiro and... more Brazilian architect. He was an influential eclectic architect highly active in Rio de Janeiro and a professor at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA). Soon after graduating from the ENBA, he established his firm in 1898. The son of Custódio José de Mello, a republican admiral and cabinet minister, Mello benefited from his family’s connections to garner major commissions early in his career. Thanks to the large-scale building campaigns then occurring in Rio—as the enlargement of the harbor and the opening of Avenida Central (now Avenida Rio Branco)—his office became one of the earliest large planning and construction firms in the Federal Capital.
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3.º Congreso Interamericano de Historia Urbana, 2022
Última chamada de resumos para a mesa temática n.º 74 Los investigadores que deseen presentar una... more Última chamada de resumos para a mesa temática n.º 74 Los investigadores que deseen presentar una comunicación en esta fase deberán enviar su propuesta a los correos facilitados por los coordinadores de mesa incluyendo un título, con la identificación del autor o sus autores, su pertenencia institucional, dirección electrónica y un resumen de máximo 300 palabras en las que se describa el trabajo a ser presentado. Además de la calidad de la ponencia, los postulantes deberán considerar la pertinencia temática de su propuesta en la mesa seleccionada. Ulteriores informaciones en: https://eventos.ucm.es/68253/section/31785/iii-congreso-de-la-asociaci on-iberoamericana-de-historia-urbana.html
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A representação de vistas urbanas na pintura brasileira do século XIX acompanha os debates format... more A representação de vistas urbanas na pintura brasileira do século XIX acompanha os debates formativos de uma ideologia da nacionalidade, articulando-se, também, com discursos do poder político e com o conceito, contraditório a essa expressão de poder, da natureza sublime. As cenas da cidade brasileira pintadas ao longo do século se articulam, assim, em três momentos: um primeiro, de inserção nas demandas de arte cívica por parte do poder político, um segundo de afirmação do romantismo artístico tendo a natureza como elemento dominante, e um terceiro de síntese e ressignificação dos conceitos anteriores.
Abstract
The representation of cityscapes in Brazilian painting during the nineteenth century follows the nation-building debates of that time, also addressing the discourses of political power and the concept, contradicting the first, of sublime nature. The Brazilian cityscapes produced all along that century define three distinct periods: first, the insertion of painting within the demands of civic art by the power of the state; second, the affirmation of artistic Romanticism holding up nature as the dominant element; finally, a cycle of synthesis and reformulation of the meanings previously constructed.
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Arquitetura, estética e cidade: questões da modernidade, 2014
Formas e motivações socioculturais dos ecletimos no mercado imobiliário residencial em São Paulo ... more Formas e motivações socioculturais dos ecletimos no mercado imobiliário residencial em São Paulo no início dos séculos XX e XXI.
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This paper examines the patterns of urbanization in Planaltina, one of a number of towns founded ... more This paper examines the patterns of urbanization in Planaltina, one of a number of towns founded during the economic slump in central Brazil in the nineteenth century. Laid out on a rough grid sometime after 1811, this town belies several key concepts of the “canonical” Portuguese-Brazilian city, such as site selection, lot proportion, and density: it was built by a valley, with wide and shallow lots having ample side yards, and its houses are often misaligned. These features are compared with preceding and contemporary towns in central Brazil, highlighting general changes in urban patterns during the pre-industrial nineteenth century throughout the region. Changes in regional highway networks, the introduction of the automobile and of the aeroplane predictably influenced the growth of the town. Starting in the early twentieth century, infill began to occur, with lots being subdivided either lengthwise or breadth wise. Changes in the historic centre came about as well, brought on more recently by the demographic and economic effects of planned extensions to the city.
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XIII Seminário de História da Cidade e do Urbanismo
Este trabalho estuda o processo de urbanização de Planaltina, arraial goiano estabelecido na prim... more Este trabalho estuda o processo de urbanização de Planaltina, arraial goiano estabelecido na primeira metade do século XIX. Dotada de uma malha em forma de retícula irregular, Planaltina desmente diversos cânones da história da urbanização vernácula brasileira, tais como a escolha do sítio, proporções de lotes e densidade de ocupação: foi edificada num vale, com lotes largos e rasos, amplos afastamentos laterais e pouco controle sobre o alinhamento das edificações à testada do lote. Comparam-se essas características com os padrões típicos de arraiais setecentistas, ressaltando transformações no modo de apropriação do sítio urbano no período que se segue ao ciclo do ouro. A partir do início do século XX, verifica-se um processo de adensamento urbano e subdivisão de lotes, intensificado devido à pressão demográfica e imobiliária causada pela transformação de Planaltina em cidade satélite de Brasília.
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II Colóquio de História da Arte VisUnB
Tanto modernistas quanto tradicionalistas do final do século XIX até o início do XX alegavam que ... more Tanto modernistas quanto tradicionalistas do final do século XIX até o início do XX alegavam que faltava à arte e à arquitetura brasileiras da segunda metade do século XIX um caráter devidamente nacional. Juntamente com a revisão e reabilitação da arte acadêmica e da arquitetura eclética nas últimas décadas, todavia, escamotearam-se os discursos que denegriam o século XIX. A presente comunicação pretende explorar alguns discursos estabelecidos entre 1888 e 1930, que abordem a questão de identificar o caráter nacional na arte do século XIX. Para tanto, estudam-se textos de Gonzaga Duque, Monteiro Lobato, Ricardo Severo, José Marianno Filho e Lucio Costa, produzidos entre 1888 e 1928.
Palavras-chave: Tradicionalismo, modernismo, século XIX, nacionalismo, caráter
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Oliveira V, Pinho P, Batista L, Patatas T and Monteiro C (eds.) (2014) Our common future in Urban Morphology, FEUP, Porto, p. 462–478, Jul 4, 2014
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Theory of Architectural History
Portugal e Brasil
Este tipo de casa corrente, atestado no limiar cronológico e conceitual da modernização industrial, é um caso extremo importante para se debater o escopo da noção de « arquitetura vernácula » e a metodologia do seu estudo. A vasta bibliografia que se ocupa da morada operária e daquela burguesa2 dá pouca atenção à modularidade do parcelamento do solo e à interdependência entre dimensões de testadas de lotes e tipos edilícios. Todavia, essa interdependência é amplamente atestada na história da arquitetura tradicional portuguesa, desde as vilas medievais planeadas com lotes de 25 palmos3 aos « chãos » suburbanos do Renascimento com seus 30 palmos4 e aos diversos módulos joaninos, pombalinos e micaelenses de 20, 40 e 50 palmos. De facto, a estabilização dos 40 palmos como módulo de parcelamento do solo suburbano é concebível no quadro de um processo de ordem emergente no qual agentes da construção especulativa descentralizada ocupam um espaço escassamente condicionado quer por normativas urbanas, quer por interesses especulativos de grande porte. A casa corrente de 40 palmos ocupa o nicho de uma arquitetura vernácula madura capaz de responder à acelerada expansão urbana do século XIX, mas antes de a prática construtiva descentralizada ter sido excluída dos principais processos de urbanização pelos grandes empreendimentos especulativos ou públicos.
Abstract
The representation of cityscapes in Brazilian painting during the nineteenth century follows the nation-building debates of that time, also addressing the discourses of political power and the concept, contradicting the first, of sublime nature. The Brazilian cityscapes produced all along that century define three distinct periods: first, the insertion of painting within the demands of civic art by the power of the state; second, the affirmation of artistic Romanticism holding up nature as the dominant element; finally, a cycle of synthesis and reformulation of the meanings previously constructed.
Palavras-chave: Tradicionalismo, modernismo, século XIX, nacionalismo, caráter
Este tipo de casa corrente, atestado no limiar cronológico e conceitual da modernização industrial, é um caso extremo importante para se debater o escopo da noção de « arquitetura vernácula » e a metodologia do seu estudo. A vasta bibliografia que se ocupa da morada operária e daquela burguesa2 dá pouca atenção à modularidade do parcelamento do solo e à interdependência entre dimensões de testadas de lotes e tipos edilícios. Todavia, essa interdependência é amplamente atestada na história da arquitetura tradicional portuguesa, desde as vilas medievais planeadas com lotes de 25 palmos3 aos « chãos » suburbanos do Renascimento com seus 30 palmos4 e aos diversos módulos joaninos, pombalinos e micaelenses de 20, 40 e 50 palmos. De facto, a estabilização dos 40 palmos como módulo de parcelamento do solo suburbano é concebível no quadro de um processo de ordem emergente no qual agentes da construção especulativa descentralizada ocupam um espaço escassamente condicionado quer por normativas urbanas, quer por interesses especulativos de grande porte. A casa corrente de 40 palmos ocupa o nicho de uma arquitetura vernácula madura capaz de responder à acelerada expansão urbana do século XIX, mas antes de a prática construtiva descentralizada ter sido excluída dos principais processos de urbanização pelos grandes empreendimentos especulativos ou públicos.
Abstract
The representation of cityscapes in Brazilian painting during the nineteenth century follows the nation-building debates of that time, also addressing the discourses of political power and the concept, contradicting the first, of sublime nature. The Brazilian cityscapes produced all along that century define three distinct periods: first, the insertion of painting within the demands of civic art by the power of the state; second, the affirmation of artistic Romanticism holding up nature as the dominant element; finally, a cycle of synthesis and reformulation of the meanings previously constructed.
Palavras-chave: Tradicionalismo, modernismo, século XIX, nacionalismo, caráter
This paper shall examine a few landmark narratives on the issue of national character published between 1880 and 1940. Some major authors in point were academic art critic Luiz Gonzaga Duque Estrada (1863–1911), neocolonial engineer Ricardo Severo (1869–1940) and physician José Marianno Filho (1881–1946), Beaux-Arts architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos Filho (1887–1973), writer Monteiro Lobato (1882-1948), and modernist architect Lucio Costa (1902–1998). In the first part of the paper, these authors’ writings will be examined with regard to their definition of a Brazilian character and the purported lack thereof in works produced in the generations that preceded them.
In the second part, it is argued that the discourse on the lack of national character put forward in these narratives stems both from well-documented aesthetic agendas advanced by these authors, and from the less frequently acknowledged difficulty in dating Brazilian vernacular architecture due to its marked continuity and stability. This brings attention to the matter of how canonical examples of Brazilian art and architecture were cherry-picked, then oftentimes tampered with, to conform to certain expectations regarding national character. Finally, I argue that the authors’ aesthetic movements are less relevant to how each addressed the matter of Brazilianness in art, than is their understanding of the nature of artistic and building professions.
Marvão, hosted during the last two weeks of July
2018, the 5th Traditional Architecture and Urbanism
Summer School. There, teachers and students
coming from all over the world studied the traditional
construction, architecture and urbanism of the region
and took them as the basis to develop different design
proposals for the future development of this place.
The Summer School was once again organized by
INTBAU and by the Rafael Manzano Prize for New
Traditional Architecture. It was possible thanks to
the support provided by the Richard H. Driehaus
Charitable Lead Trust (through a contribution to the
Chicago Community Foundation for the Richard
H. Driehaus Charitable Fund), the Fundação
Serra Henriques and Kalam. Equally important
was the collaboration of the Câmara Municipal de
Marvão, the Junta de Freguesia de Beirã, the A Anta
Association, also from Beirã, and the Infrastructures
of Portugal, all of which provided constant advice
and commitment. A large number of Portuguese
and foreign universities also took part, providing
teachers, lectures and students: the Escola Superior
Gallaecia, the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa
(ISCTE-IUL), the Universidade do Algarve and the
Universidade de Évora (Portugal), the Pontifical and
Royal University of Santo Tomas (Philippines), the
Schools of Architecture of the Judson University,
the University of Miami and the University of Notre
Dame (USA), the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio,
the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha and the
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) and the
Centro de Investigación de Arquitectura Tradicional
(CIAT-UPM).
Such mythical structures typically consist of three parts: first, a description of reality as conceived by a certain group; second, an explanation of how it came to be, forming its narrative core; third, a ritual reenactment of mythical deeds in order to preserve or fix this-worldly order.
First, it defines the city as a direct materialization of its original design. Not only is the idea of Brasilia locked into an established discourse centered on the need to bring about this foundational image, it also gives birth to a rhetoric of absence, inasmuch as the original design, the 1957 Pilot Plan report, is superseded irrevocably by its very materialization, yet lives forever in a nostalgic narrative.
Second, the explanatory apparatus of the Brasilia-myth is that of a heroic achievement—albeit one deprived of the usual topos of the Hero’s fatal flaw. This explanation, in fact a long string of narratives and laws regarding the construction of a new seat of government, stretching back into the mid-eighteenth century, stresses the opposition between the civilizatory act of city-building and the purported cultural void in which it is to take place. It is, therefore, an individuated act, of which the major performer is the appropriately heroic figure of President Juscelino Kubitschek. Third, this foundation myth is reenacted in the form of present discourses, attempting to draw from the myth instructions for the historic preservation of Brasilia. It is by means of this use that the narrative gains actuality, thus fulfilling the operative requirement of the myth. The preservationist discourse formed in this way tends to favor a static view of the city in which the void, to begin with an indispensable asset where the heroic act of city-building takes place, ends up considered a liability. Thus, in the end the Modernist public space is seen not as a relationship of matter and void where flows and socio-spatial practices can happen, but as lacunae to be filled in authoritatively. This is based on the fact that the original design is vague enough to be invoked as authoritative while being arbitrarily interpreted by “specialists”.
The central Bus station is one case where the void survives as a key factor in the social appropriation of Brasilia. The mythology of the foundational design, however, results in a drive to “complete” the space with a number of urban designs and policy decisions bent on retrieving this elusive original intent. Actual social appropriations of the space are, on the other hand, driven into the background by this mythology."
Além de serem todas resultados de concursos, essas obras têm em comum a genealogia dominante do brutalismo brasileiro.
Tal origem preponderante é, porém, temperada nos três edifícios pelo cruzamento com elementos compositivos oriundos tanto de outros antecedentes históricos no seio da arquitetura moderna brasileira quanto de tendências recentes em projetos corporativos internacionais.
O edifício da Fundação Habitacional do Exército (FHE, 2005) assimila a circulação ampla do repertório brutalista, mas distancia-se dele pela volumetria analítica e pelo tratamento mais ameno da fachada.
Na sede do Confea (2007), apenas reminiscências brutalistas são visíveis no dimensionamento dos elementos estruturais aparentes e na fachada opaca de fora para dentro.
Considerando a sua volumetria sintética e circulação superlativa, a sede nacional do Sebrae (2008) vincula-se a uma expressão brutalista mais canônica, suavizada, todavia, pelo detalhamento que remete aos paradigmas atuais da arquitetura corporativa contemporânea.
As três obras se inscrevem, assim, numa conjuntura de interação entre duas influências.
De um lado, as chamadas “escolas” modernistas canônicas de meados do século XX — carioca e paulista —, com presença marcante na construção da capital federal, mostram-se ainda vivas nesses projetos da primeira década século XXI.
De outro, fica patente que práticas recentes da arquitetura internacional de edifícios de escritórios, tais como peles duplas e os freqüentemente criticados painéis metálicos, não se reportam apenas a interesses comerciais, mas fazem parte de uma cultura construtiva que permeia também as obras de caráter público.
Outrossim, os memoriais redigidos pelos respectivos arquitetos evidenciam a transparência — no sentido sociológico — dessa inserção histórica.
Nas diferentes versões dos textos elaborados pelos autores dos projetos, mesmo após a conclusão das obras, enfatizam-se conceitos como funcionalidade e “naturalidade” dos partidos adotados.
Passam, assim, em grande parte ao largo das questões de composição e estética, demonstrando o quão introjetados esses elementos se encontram na prática dos arquitetos.
Palavras-chave:
Brasília, Arquitetura Contemporânea, Arquitetura Corporativa
Abstract
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Use of Precedents in Recent Architecture in Brasilia: Fundação Habitacional do Exército, Confea, and Sebrae
This paper studies three examples of large-scale _architecture d’auteur_ created in Brasilia in the twenty-first century.
In addition to stemming from design competitions, these works have in common the dominant descent from Brazilian Brutalism.
This origin is, however, toned down in all three buildings due to its crossing with compositional elements from both other historic precedents within Brazilian Modern architecture, and recent trends in international corporate designs.
The Army Housing Institute (Fundação Habitacional do Exército, FHE, 2005) appropriates the ample circulation of the Brutalist repertoire, but takes its distances from this repertoire by virtue of its exploded massing and softer façade treatment.
The Federal Engineering and Surveying Board building (Conselho Federal de Engenharia e Agronomia, Confea, 2007) is little more than vaguely reminiscent of Brutalism, incorporating its oversized structural ideal and a façade that is opaque at least from the outside in.
The headquarters of the Brazilian Service for Small Businesses (Sebrae, 2008) has a simple massing and exaggerated circulation that give it a more canonical Brutalist appearance.
This is attenuated, however, by the detailing that is more closely related to current paradigms in corporate architecture.
These three works represent, therefore, interaction between two bodies of influence.
On the one hand, so-called “schools” of canonical mid-twentieth-century Modernism in Brazil—namely, those from Rio and São Paulo—, ever-present in the construction process of the nation’s capital, remain alive in the first decade of this century.
On the other hand, they make it evident that recent international corporate architecture has lent its elements, such as detached skins and the much-maligned metal-plate finishes, not only to private office buildings but also to a design culture that permeates civic buildings as well.
Furthermore, the design statements from the architects evidence the transparency—sociologically speaking—of this historic context.
In the different statements, written up even after construction, the designers emphasize concepts such as functionality and “natural” design solutions.
They evade, therefore, all matters of composition and aesthetics, showing how much these features have become subsumed in the design culture of contemporary Brazilian architects.
Keywords:
Brasilia, Contemporary Architecture, Corporate Architecture"
This article analyzes representations of cities in two pictures created around 1600: Theodor de Bry’s engraving of Macao, and the views of Kyoto attributed to Iwasa Katsumochi Matabei. The relationship between fragmented and total forms of representation is studied in both pictures. The European engraving depicts urban space as a whole, while the Japanese painting portrays a number of fragmentary scenes separated by golden clouds. However, the global picture in the European print is fragmented by the multiplication of simultaneous perspectives, while the Japanese screen displays underlying global order due to its cavalier projection. In both cases there is interaction between fragmentary views and a global outlook that relate in diverse ways.
Resumo
Este artigo analisa as formas de representação de cidades em duas ilustrações produzidas perto de 1600: a gravura de Macau por Theodor de Bry, e a vista de Quioto atribuída a Iwasa Katsumochi Matabei. Investiga-se a relação entre formas de representação fragmentária e global em ambas as imagens. A gravura europeia da cidade retrata o espaço urbano como um todo, enquanto a pintura japonesa representa uma série de fragmentos separados por nuvens douradas. Entretanto, a imagem global da figura europeia é fragmentada pela multiplicidade de perspectivas concomitantes, ao passo que o biombo japonês tem uma ordem global subjacente gerada pela projeção cavaleira. Em ambos os casos, há interação entre olhares fragmentados e uma visão de conjunto que se relacionam de modos variados.