Ecletic houses of the coffee farms of the Sertões de Botucatu (SP)

Abstract

It analyzes the predominantly eclectic architecture of the farmhouses built by great coffee farmers in the hinterland of Estate of São Paulo between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, more specifically in the region formerly known as Sertões de Botucatu. In São Paulo, farm houses were the first depository of a series of innovations that emerged at the turn of the century in terms of techniques and construction materials, equipment for comfort, ornamentation and decoration, which also modified their immediate surroundings (gardens, family leisure areas, orchards, etc.). This is due, among other factors, to the fact that they are the main dwellings of the coffee farmers of that time. These innovations were then taken to the cities, generating many changes also in the urban way of life. The richness of detail, ornaments, and interest in the modernities of the time mark the change in the rural style of the First Republic, and the lifestyle of this ascendant aristocracy. Analyzing these changes in the rural house in this period and in the region of Botucatu is the main objective of the research. The research will be based on surveys (metrical and photographic) of remaining farmhouses, search of primary or secondary documentation about them, and a comparison with Previous times, not eclectic. (AU)