Arquitetura Nova. La democratizzazione della casa paulista

The paper intends to present the production processes for the definition of the Brazilian popular house, theorized and implemented by Arquitetura Nova during ‘70s. The São Paulo group, composed by Sérgio Ferro, Rodrigo Lefèvre and Flávio Império, investigates the new solutions and alternatives able to reduce the gap between the creative moment, expressed by the design, and the constructive one, represented by the construction-site. Local techniques and traditional materials represent for Arquitetura Nova the primary elements to deal with the housing needs of the low-income population. At that time, indeed, the first self-built houses of the favelas began to rise in the expanding metropolitan areas. These thoughts lead the group to identify in the vaulted roof, and in the space defined by it, the most economical and reproducible solution on a large scale for the public house, reinterpreting in terms of proletarian struggle an ancient technique. It can be defined as the São Paulo house democratization which pushes toward the building act transformation into a learning and researching moment, summarized in the concept of construction-site-school theorized by Lefèvre in 1981. These investigations will lead to the “mutirão” definition, recognized as heritage of the group.