Housing as a cultural heritage: the preservation of modern housing blocks

Abstract

This article aims at discussing the preservation of housing blocks built between 1930 and 1964 all over Brazil by the Institutes of Social Security, by the Department of Social Housing and by the Foundation of the Social House. Those housing blocks are important examples of the history of Brazilian modern architecture and their keeping is seriously threatened. By integrating preservation and social housing agendas we propose to study them and understand them as cultural heritage and to gather forces in order to define conceptual parameters and to outline preservation and management strategies. We intend to take part in the debate on the preservation of modern architecture and urbanism from the point of view of social housing. We will face the problem of valuation and the problem of contemporariness and/or obsolescence of modern housing proposals.