The city of São Paulo, capital of the state with the same name and the industrial and financial center of Brazil, has been described since the last decades of the 19th to the 20th century as a locomotive. Unlike cities with outstanding natural beauty, such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo has been likened to a powerful engine, the product of human impact, altering and overcoming natural obstacles in favor of civilization. São Paulo was founded by the Jesuits in 1554 as a mission center (the central colonial area called Patio do Colégio) on a plateau 760 meters (2,493 feet) above sea level, although only 72 kilometers (35 miles) from the Atlantic coast. It remained a small town for a long time and would have to wait until the 18th century to be chartered as a city (1711) and a further century and a half to experience unparalleled urban growth to become today one of the largest cities in the world, housing more than 15 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area. Local pride had attributed the industriousness of São Paulo inhabitants (“Paulistas”) to the “bandeirantes” who had the city as a base for their expeditions. They were explorers responsible for marking territory for the Portuguese crown while imprisoning or killing native Indians and searching for precious stones. However, it was the massive European immigration at the turn of the 20th century (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Syrian- Lebanese, and later Japanese), together with the coffee export boom and industrialization, that defined the modern city and its architecture. 

As a result, if in 1895 São Paulo had 130,000 inhabitants, in 1900 its population had almost doubled. Disorderly growth was met with remarkable urban improvements, including the opening of avenues, lighting, gasworks, public transportation, and works for embellishment. Municipal commissions prepared reports on the living conditions of the working classes of the industrial neighborhoods of the city, especially Luz, Bom Retiro, Brás, and Mooca. Epidemics such as smallpox, Spanish flu, and yellow fever, as well as the moral and physical menace of slums, were to be avoided by sanitation, street planning, and drainage and channeling of rivers, all planned by the local administration and the newly created Engineering School (Escola Politécnica, 1894). The opening of Avenida Paulista (1891) and the building of Viaduto do Chá (1892), uniting the old center to new industrial areas, and of the São Paulo Railway Station (Estação da Luz, 1901) were seen as proof of progress. Architecture was a major force behind these changes. The style chosen— ecclecticism—reflected European models and was considered to be the most civilized and appealing to bourgeois taste. It can be found at Carlos Ekman’s Vila Penteado (rua Maranhão) and in the works of architect engineer Francisco de Paula Ramos de Azevedo (1851–1928), who studied in Belgium and planned a large number of private mansions and public buildings, such as the school Caetano de Campos (1894), the Palácio das Indústrias (Industry Palace, 1911–24, with Domiziano Rossi), and the Municipal Theatre (Teatro Municipal, 1895–1911, with associates). In 1912, the City of São Paulo Improvements and Freehold Company (known as the “City”) was established in London with the aim to develop distant suburban areas in São Paulo following the pattern of Ebenezer Howard’s (1850–1928) garden cities. Raymond Unwin (1863–1940) and Barry Parker (1867–1941) were commissioned to develop the areas of Jardim America and City Lapa and to rearrange the Trianon Park at Avenida Paulista (1917–19). The growth of São Paulo and workers’ unrest during the first decades of the century led Mayor Washington Luis to declare during the opening of São Paulo Industry Palace that the city was “Chicago and Manchester together in one.” 

During the 1922 São Paulo’s Modern Art Week, spearheaded by the intellectuals Mário de Andrade and Oswald de Andrade, among others, there was an urgent cry for devising a national style in the arts and a modern aesthetics rooted on indigenous sources. Ecclecticism was substituted for a vigorous modern architecture and urban planning. Skyscrapers were built, and the Plano de Avenidas, an ambitious design of radial streets by the engineer Francisco Prestes Maia (1826–1965; twice mayor, nominated 1937–45, elected 1961–65), was partly executed. Modern architecture in Brazil has created a regional version of the International Style. Although there are examples of the Art Deco style, such as Rino Levi’s cinemas and skyscrapers of the 1920s (Columbus Building, Rino Levi, 1932, demolished; Martinelli Building, 1934, 105 meters and 26 floors, the largest ever built in South America at the time), São Paulo houses several examples of the local adoption of Le Corbusier’s “five steps.” Gregori Warchavchik (1896–1982) designed several residences, including his own (1928, rua Santa Cruz), a boxlike building based on geometry, symmetry, and standardization of building materials that was visited by Le Corbusier himself in 1929. The Esther Building (Praça da República, 1938) by Álvaro Vital Brazil (1909–97), with Ademar Marinho (1909–), featured a roof terrace, continuous window strips, and free facade composition in a residential and commercial building. In the postwar period, with about two million inhabitants, São Paulo experienced huge and disorderly growth as a result of real estate speculation, clandestine housing, and lack of basic public services. Verticalization was regarded as a symbol of the city’s economic power, beating its rival Rio de Janeiro. During his 1958 visit, Roger Bastide noted with astonishment, “Here the architect’s hand replaced God’s hand.” The highlights of this period are the Masp Building (Modern Museum of Art, 1957–68) by Lina Bo Bardi (1914–92) and Niemeyer; several buildings, such as Copan, a lyrically curved residential and commercial building; the buildings of Ibirapuera Park and the park itself; and landscapist Burle Marx (1909–94). The park was conceived as a 1.6-million-square-meter green area inside the metropolis. Niemeyer’s Memorial da America Latina (Latin America Memorial) was built only in 1988–89. During the 1960s, São Paulo found in the architect Vilanova Artigas (1915–85) a voice of renovation. He created the architecture courses at the University of São Paulo and planned its building (1961–68), defending that design as a tool for political, social, and ideological emancipation. His engaged and revolutionary style cost him a serious persecution during Brazil’s dictatorial rule but enabled him to open the road for a “Paulista School” against Rio de Janeiro’s “Niemeyer School.” The Paulista Brutalism movement was soon to follow, with several examples in the houses built by Carlos Milan (1927–64). Among the new crop of architects, several stood out, such as Rodrigo Lefevre (1938–84), Paulo Mendes da Rocha (1928–), Fábio Penteado (1928–), Júlio Katinsky (1932–), Siegbert Zanetiini (1934–), Ruy Othake (1938-), Joaquim Guedes (1932–), and Sérgio Ferro (1938-). The city’s underground was built during 1973–79, a remarkable engineering work featuring an original use of reinforced concrete in all stations. The last decades of the 20th century witnessed São Paulo stepping, perhaps too late, into the preservation era, listing several buildings and areas and sponsoring daring revitalization projects, such as the Pinacoteca do Estado (1998, Paulo Mendes da Rocha). At the same time, however, pollution and urban violence had worsened, social inequality had mounted, and urban growth continued at a chaotic pace. “Postmodern” architecture has had its share at Avenida Paulista, once the setting for the mansions of the local bourgeoisie and today a corridor of skyscrapers; the same happened at the Avenida Berrini skyscrapers for offices and banks, many of them the work of Carlos Bratke and

Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.3 (P-Z).  Fitzroy Dearborn., 2005.

INTERNAL LINKS

BRASILIA; BRAZIL; RIO DE JANEIRO;

FUTHER READING

Artigas, João Batista Vilanova, Caminhos da arquitetura, São Paulo, Brazil: Livraria Editora Ciencias Humanas, 1981; 2nd edition, São Paulo, Brazil: Fundação Vilanova Artigas, 1986

Bacelli, Ronei, “A presença da cia city em São Paulo e a implantação do primeiro bairro Jardim, 1915–1940,” Masters thesis, University of São Paulo, 1982

Bresciani, Maria Stella, “Images of São Paulo: Aesthetics and Citizenship,” in Cultura material e arqueologia histórica, edited by Pedro Paulo A.Funari, Martin Hall, and Sian Jones, Campinas, Brazil: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 1998

Harris, David and Sebastiao Salgado, “São Paulo: Megacity,” Rolling Stone (26 December 1996–9 January 1997) Harvey, Robert, “São Paulo, São Paulo,” The Economist 303 (25 April 1987)

Lemos, Carlos, Ramos de Azevedo e seu escritório, São Paulo, Brazil: Pini Editora, 1993

Porto, Antonio Rodrigues, História urbanística da cidade de São Paulo, 1554–1988, São Paulo, Brazil: Carthago and Forte, 1992

Segawa, Hugo, Arquiteturas no Brasil: 1900–1990, São Paulo, Brazil: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 1998; 2nd edition, 1999

Toledo, Benedito Lima de, São Paulo: três cidades em um século, São Paulo, Brazil: Livaria Duas Cidades, 1981; 2nd edition, 1983

Wirth, John and Robert L.Jones, Manchester and São Paulo: Problems of Rapid Urban Growth, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1978