Two artigas houses: adjective city

Abstract

This article examines two of the early works of the architect VilanovaArtigas: the 1942 casinha, and Artigas’ second house of 1949, both inSão Paulo. These authors analyze the spatial and constructive aspectsand the relationship between the strategies adopted and thecorresponding architectural urban possibilities. This research is part of alarger study that seeks to understand the lines consolidated by thearchitecture produced in São Paulo and the identifiable city-relatedresults. The goal is to understand the contemporary urban predicamentsthat would somehow be inserted in nuce in their original formulations.These authors aim to understand architectural form that goes beyond itsimmediate exterior and to find, within the social reality to which it isbound, its reason and content. This article further tries to identify,within the Brazilian context of rapid industrialization, the possibilities ofsocial advancement and the waste of national duality; this conceptoriginally intended to overcome these elements but in fact involuntarilyreproduced them. Although they are not mature works, their studyreveals Artiga’s clarity of understanding in relation to the primaryproblems to be faced at the decisive moment of change in the socialscene following the Vargas administration in Brazil and the country’sentrance into mass urban society. This article particularly focuses on thecontradictions arising from this framework of profound changes in socialand spatial configurations of the country, which contain both broadprospects for independent modernization and the deepening ofhistorical events in the context of late industrialization.