The distinctive view from IAPs and the siting design of modern housing

Abstract

A quick glance at the recent social housing production in Brazil may suggest that the low quality of the housing development is a constant. However, the history of social housing in our country highlights the production of Institutes of Retirement and Pensions - IRPs, or IAPs in the acronym in Portuguese, which built a significant number of households with high-quality architectural and urban design. The radical nature of some of those housing projects was a disruption with the traditional view of deployment of units and urban integration, motivated by modern ideas. This paper presents an analysis of the Várzea do Carmo housing complex (1938-1942), designed by the architect Attilio Correa Lima, to the industrial IRP in the city of Sao Paulo. This example is an emblematic expression of the modernist principles in architecture and urbanism adapted to the Brazilian context. Its relevance may be understood by the innovative and social character of associating to housing buildings social facilities, leisure, green area, road system, among others. It was sought to achieve spaces able to shelter and encourage a new working-class way of life which would be modern, collective, public and consistent with national development model stimulated at that time. The analysis focuses on the innovative aspects of the siting design proposal, linked to the housing typology, urban integration, density, design and urban infrastructure and open and collective spaces.