Sporadic insights. The paulista residential architecture in italian magazines (1930-1960) - considerations on the margins

Over the course of the 20th century Italian publications devoted much interest to Brazilian architecture, a fact that scholars have often emphasized, especially in Brazil. This, along with the research I conducted on the São Paulo School, is the starting point of the present text, which focuses on the way Italian observers described the housing output in São Paulo between 1930 and 1960. As the city grew, new housing models were tested and established, with features that unmistakably identified the Paulista tendencies. It was an exceptionally creative and productive phase, but Italian publications seemed unable to understand that São Paulo’s architecture was undergoing a revolution, and they just kept focusing on renowned, well-established architects that, often, were also somehow connected to Italian architecture. To give some historical and architectural context to the revolution that took place in São Paulo, we must bear in mind a few facts: the Modernist tendencies were gaining ground; Concretism was by then well established; Artigas got involved with the Communist Party; there was a constant pursuit of balance between political activism and creative freedom; and, since social welfare was more important than aesthetics, austere architecture emerged as the expression of a social project. The need to integrate all these factors seems to warrant a new analysis.