The Workers' Villages in the construction of São Paulo city: study of

preservation policies of workers' heritage in the Brás region

Ana Clara Vieira Marques

Supervisor: Profa. Simone Scifoni

Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences

anaclaravm@usp.br

Objectives Alvuenda and Vila Queiroga. The proposed

discussion starts from the contextualization of
Throughout the history of the city of São Paulo, the history of the working class in the urban
the working class has adapted in search of transformations of the city of São Paulo from
better survival conditions, aggregating in the spaces of the workers' villages.
collective spaces to meet their housing and With the survey of the workers' villages, it is
living demands. As a mark of industrial possible to analyze how the preservation
development between the end of the 19th policies aimed at industrial and workers'
century and the beginning of the 20th century, heritage in São Paulo were configured.
the workers' villages became a space for
socialization between the workers who settled Materials and Methods
in the city with their families. Imbued with
In order to understand the totality of the space
contradictions, the communities present in the
in all its specifications, data analysis was used
workers' villages were controlled by the factory
based on mapping available on the Geosampa
bosses at the same time as they proved to be a
website (São Paulo City Hall). The space
refuge in the midst of a hostile environment that
delimited for the research covers the current
was being consolidated in the urban dynamic.
Brás neighborhood. Comparing the 1930 and
The industrial development of the city of São
1954 maps made it possible to see the changes
Paulo directly influenced the reflux of occupied
made to the space, understanding the official
areas in the territory, playing a useful role in the
perspective that was maintained about the
established analysis. It is from this movement
Workers' Villages. After this comparison, the
that housing spaces such as workers' villages
information provided by Vitorino's study (2008)
prove to be materially unavoidable for
provided updated data on the current state of
thousands of workers' families to live in.
each of the selected villages.
During the years when they were most
Each workers' village selected was entered on
occupied, the workers' villages suffered from
an information sheet, based on the readings
the neglect of public authorities. Established in
previously carried out on the basic themes of
peripheral neighborhoods such as Lapa, Brás,
the research.
Mooca, Bom Retiro and Belém, the houses
Finally, a survey was carried out on the
were included in a limited way in heritage
Conpresp (Municipal Council for the
preservation policies until the end of the 20th
Preservation of the Historical, Cultural and
century. Of the workers' villages in the territory,
Environmental Heritage of the City of São
only two have already been listed, Vila Maria
Paulo) website in relation to listed buildings, in
Zélia and Vila Economizadora. And of the nine
order to understand the situation of each
workers' villages selected for study in this
housing complex in terms of preservation. The
research, only two are minimally included in
information was provided in forms that covered
heritage protection legislation, namely Vila
everything from the degree of originality to the
current use of the space, and whether there
was a listing process.
Results
From an analysis of Vitorino's archives and a
comparison with the 1930, 1954 and current
maps, it can be seen that although almost all
the workers' villages are in a good state of
repair, the degree of originality has been
severely modified. Four of the nine workers'
villages are completely uncharacterized, while
two have a degree of originality defined as
"bad". As the debate about the importance of
preserving this heritage was left in the
background for a long time, the alterations to
the houses were made without supervision,
which caused irregular changes to the
properties.
As a result, the negligence of public authorities
in preserving the instruments of working class
memory in the city of São Paulo is clear. To the
extent that heritage preservation policies have
been few or ineffective in properly maintaining
these environments, what we have had is an
unplanned occupation of the territory, which has
been established without concern for the
identity spaces of the working class. This
served to profoundly alter the landscape and
damaged the originality of the housing and,
consequently, the history of working-class
families in the city of São Paulo.
ANDRADE, Margarida Maria. Brás, Mooca e
Belenzinho - bairros italianos na São Paulo
além-Tamanduateí. Tese de Doutorado
(FFLCH-USP), 1991.
BLAY, Eva. Eu não tenho onde morar. São
Paulo: Nobel, 1985.
BLAY, Eva. A luta pelo espaço. Petrópolis:
Vozes, 1978.
DUARTE, Adriano. O direito à cidade:
trabalhadores e cidadãos em São Paulo —
1942/1953. São Paulo: Alameda Editorial,
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HOGAN, J. Daniel. KOWARICK, Lucio. SILVA,
Luiz Antonio. BERLINCK, Manoel Tosta.
PAOLI, Maria Cecília. Cidade: usos e abusos.
São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1978.
SECCHI, Bernardo. A cidade do século vinte.
1a Edição. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2009.
VALLADARES, Licia do Prado (org.).
Habitação em questão. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar,
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VITORINO, Bruno. Patrimônio ameaçado: os
grupos residenciais construídos até 1930 no
Brás, Mooca e Belém. Tese (Mestrado em
Arquitetura e Urbanismo) – Faculdade de
Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São
Paulo. 2008, São Paulo.

Conclusions
What we can conclude from the research
carried out is that, although the data on the
issue of heritage has expanded in recent years,
we still find gaps when dealing with the history
of the working class in the territory of the city of
São Paulo.
In addition, we tried to think about preservation
policies for housing in contemporary times. This
reinforces the importance of essential spaces in
the construction of the identity of the city of São
Paulo. To this end, understanding the history
not only of the selected neighborhood, but of
the city and its historical development, is crucial
to understanding the research as a whole.

References