Popular modernism: An analysis of the acceptance of modern architecture in 1950s Brazil.

Abstract

Brazilian Modern Architecture, although strongly influenced by Corbusier's and the Bauhaus' ideals, achieved its own unique identity. The Brazilian modernism of the 1940's and 50's can be considered a success both in terms of its recognition abroad and its acceptance at home. Such acceptance can be perceived in the innumerable elements of Modern Architecture adopted, adapted and applied to middle-class houses in many Brazilian cities during the 50's and 60's. Formal characteristics such as inverted roofs and concrete canopies were adopted by thousands of middle-class houses (most of them not designed by architects). Smaller elements such as thin steel columns, ceramic tiles and <italic>brise-soleils</italic> were even more common. Used to indicate modernity, they achieved during the 1950's the status of fashionable popularity. This makes Brazil an intriguing case where modernism was a popular aesthetic. This dissertation departs from the philosophical concepts of modernity in order to place the analysis of such popular modernism in a broader context. In addition, the complexity of Latin American modernism is explored in order to highlight the peculiarities of the Brazilian case. Much has been already written about Brazilian Modern Architecture and the dissertation reviews such literature to provide a framework against which the middle-class houses will be studied. Following that, those houses are analyzed in their form and content. Such analysis of form and content constitutes the main trunk of original research of the dissertation. The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze the dissemination of architectural vocabulary all the way into the middle-class housing application, in order to discuss from an architectural perspective, some of the reasons why Modern Architecture seems to have been better accepted in Brazil than in the U.S. or Western Europe. By doing that, this dissertation presents an original analysis of Brazilian popular modernism in hopes of challenging the traditional boundaries of what is considered valuable architecture.