Brazilian and argentinian social housing (1960-1980): Politics, architecture, and urbanscape

Abstract

State-funded housing production in Latin America underwent significant changes in the mid-20th century, driven by changes in the global political and economic landscape. Since the 1930s, architecture and the state had worked together to adapt modern design to the local context, but in the 1960s, new governmental actions in urban, social, and economic development, marked by a clear reduction of modern ideals, were established and remained in place until the 1980s. This research aimed to compare, from a transnational perspective, the social housing in São Paulo and Buenos Aires, the largest cities in Brazil and Argentina, between the 1960s and 1980s, to unravel the socio-spatial implications of housing policies during that period in the two metropolises. In addition to analyzing morphological similarities and differences, it is interesting to record the relationships between politics and architecture in those contexts, recognizing that they affected not only the formal aspects of social housing but also the population's lifestyles. The research revealed similarities, such as the close relationship between governments and large construction companies, the main entities responsible for building mega-housing projects during that period. At the same time, significant differences were also revealed, especially regarding housing projects: in the Brazilian case, based on extensiveness and horizontality; in the Argentinian case, on intensive and vertical occupation; and on the issue of project authorship, attributed to promoting entities in the former and to architectural firms in the latter. The conclusions indicate that, at that time, state housing production prioritized economic development over social issues.