The diffusion of the term “Garden-City”: some questions on

The diffusion of the term “Garden-City”: some questions on the process of
urbanistic model transference in Brazil
George Dantas, Angela Ferreira, Anna Rachel Eduardo and Alenuska Andrade
Since the beginning of Letchworth’s building, in 1903, until the more recent formulations of Richard
Rogers, for example, the diffusion of the garden-city set of ideas knew a trajectory that marked the
urbanistic thought and practice along the twentieth century. By observing the vast construction of
cities or expansion areas – neighborhoods, especially – that were named garden-cities, one can ask
which mechanisms allowed for the success and fast application or materialization of this set of ideas.
The seduction of the Eden-like image of harmony between man and nature? The valorization of the
low population density standard of growth in the suburbs? The reduction of the original concept to an
easily reproducible formal scheme? The discussion on the process of transference of urbanistic ideas
establishes some parameters that help understand these questions. Specially, the graduation of
Brazilian technicians in foreign institutions and the hiring of foreign professionals, as Barry Parker in
the 1910s, are some ways to understand the circulation of urbanistic cultures. However, one cannot
understand the reach of the garden-city term’s diffusion without discussing the relationship between
its forms of materialization and the original formulations established by Howard back in the late
nineteenth century. This work discusses this relationship, thus interpellating the processes in which
the transference and the assimilation of urbanistic ideas and models took place, based on the case of
Brazil. It also points to the form in which the term was appropriated in a debate that overcame the
professional and technical limits, becoming involved in the local political disputes and interests. This
fact would often aggregate new meanings to the term and promote a definitive severance towards the
ideas of social reform that marked the original conceptions of the garden-city.
Keywords: garden-city – transference of ideas – urbanistic models – urban history
BREVE CURRICULUM VITAE DOS AUTORES
George Dantas – professor do Curso de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da UNIPÊ-PB; Mestre em Teoria e História
da Arquitetura e do Urbanismo pela EESC/USP. End: Av. Petra Kelly, 1038, 101-B, Parque dos Eucaliptos,
Parnamirim-RN, BRASIL. CEP: 59150-000; telefones: (55-84) 608-0672. E-mail: [email protected]
Angela L. A. Ferreira – professora e pesquisadora do Departamento de Arquitetura e do Programa de PósGraduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo da UFRN; Doutora em Geografia pela Universidad de
Barcelona/Espanha. End: Av. Praia de Genipabu, nº 2100, Bl. Trindade, ap. 1202. Natal-RN, BRASIL. CEP:
59.094-010; telefones: (55-84) 215-3721 Ramal 228 / 236-4418. E-mail: [email protected]
Anna Rachel Eduardo – arquiteta; mestranda do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo da
EESC/USP. End: R. Nicoleta Stella Germano, nº 70, ap.12, Jd. Paraíso. São Carlos-SP, BRASIL. CEP:13561090; telefones: (55-16) 271-0725 / 273-9288. E-mail: [email protected]
Alenuska Andrade – historiadora; pesquisadora da Base de Pesquisa “Estudos do Habitat” do Departamento
de Arquitetura da UFRN. End: Av. Santos Dumont, 470, ap.103, Mirassol, Natal-RN, BRASIL. CEP: 59.780200; telefones: (55-84) 88072399. E-mail: [email protected]
Obs: Todos os autores fazem parte do grupo História da Cidade e do Urbanismo, vinculado a Base de
Pesquisa “Estudos do Habitat” do Departamento de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Norte – UFRN.