The reverse of modern architecture: domesticity and ways to live of brazilian private housing 1930-1960

Abstract

Much has been said about the success, acceptance and dissemination of Brazilian modern architecture, that one which had been synthesized in Rio de Janeiro with the Ministry of Education and Public Health - MESP (1936-1945) and had achieved hegemony and the highest prestige point with the construction of Brasília (1956-1960). If the international recognition has found consistent explanations, as well as the interpretation of the definitions and specific hallmarks of our modern architecture, the same can not be said with respect to the success achieved by it internally, especially in the context of private buildings. This research aims to address the challenge of understanding how and why in such a short time, modern architecture was consolidated in the country, not only doing works of exception, but a wide range of high quality buildings that marked the metropolitanization of the brazilian cities between 1930 and 1960 and was more diverse than the canonical language. Our research, however, will not focus on the discourse of architects, historians and critics, but the speechs of customers, consumers of this architecture, investigating the meanings and roles she assumed during period focused. Only then, inside out, on the reverse, it seems possible to move forward on this issue so recurrent in our historiography, investigating the scope of their triumph.