How did the idea of the garden suburb emerge in the 1970s? An analysis based on the performance of the city of São Paulo company in São Paulo

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe City of São Paulo Improvements and Freehold Land Company Ltd (Cia. City) was founded in London in 1911 to promote subdivisions in the urban fringes of the city of São Paulo. By adapting to the real estate development market in the 1950s and 1960s to expand its market, Cia. City continued as a land developer, expanding its business within the state of São Paulo. This article provides an overview of this trajectory to analyze its performance in the 1970s, based on three projects that it carried out: City Nova Piracicaba, City Ribeirão and City Barretos. Based on the following analyses: the conception of garden suburbs, the relationship with the municipality and legal arrangements; registry practices; as well as designing projects and advertisements, this article presents evidence that shows the permanence of characteristics of its performance until 1970s. The analysis of the three projects demonstrates the company's concern with the urban design of the projects and preserving the brand. The article also reveals that while the idea of the garden suburb remained throughout the whole period, its layouts changed substantially, departing from the original organic parcelling pattern. Otherwise, the proximity and relationship with the pre-existing city determined its location.KEYWORDS: Cia. Cityurban planningCity Garden Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 The architect Joseph-Antoine Bouvard had cooperated with Alphand in the parks and gardens service of Paris, having designed Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and Parc Montsouris, and had traveled to Buenos Aires in 1907 to redesign picturesque and landscape elements of the city. In 1911, he was invited by the Public Works Director of São Paulo, Victor da Silva Freire, to give a lecture in the state capital, which was followed by an invitation to provide consultancy services for the landscape remodeling of Vale do Anhangabaú in 1911(see Campos, Os rumos da cidade. Urbanismo e Modernização em São Paulo).2 Information in the actual law digitized by the Chamber of Deputies. Available at: Visited on Aug. 26, 2017.3 Bacelli, “A Presença da Companhia City em São Paulo e a implantação do primeiro Bairro-Jardim”, 25–52.4 The former Brazilian president Campos Sales, the former president of several Brazilian states (Piauí, Paraná, Ceará and Pernambuco) Sancho de Barros Pimentel and the Deputy Cincinato Braga were named as the politicians, and English banking establishments including Imperial and Foreign Corporation Ltd as financial agents, the enterprise that provided necessary working capital to City Company and to which its land was mortgaged (see Souza, O capital imobiliário e a produção do espaço urbano: o caso da Companhia City, 43–68).5 Andrade, ‘Barry Parker um arquiteto inglês na cidade de São Paulo’, 3–7. Bacelli, ‘A Presença da Companhia City em São Paulo e a implantação do primeiro Bairro-Jardim’, 25–52; Feldman, ‘Planejamento e Zoneamento: São Paulo 1947–1972’, 15–34; Lopes, ‘Conhecer os bairros-Jardins paulistanos confinados nos arquivos: O caso do Jardim América’, 127–68.6 Ward, “The vision beyond planning”, 128–129.7 Ibid., 128–129.8 Tizot, “Ebenezer Howard's Garden City Idea and the Ideology of Industrialism”, 1–10.9 Ward, “Ebenezer Howard: His Life and Times”, 14–37.10 Calabi, História do Urbanismo europeu.11 Clevenger and Andrews, “A Peaceful Path to’ Healthy Bodies: The Biopolitics of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City”, 141–45.12 Steuer, “A hundred years of town planning and the influence of Ebenezer Howard”, 377–86.13 Tizot, “Ebenezer Howard's Garden City Idea and the Ideology of Industrialism”, 1–10.14 Dragica et al., “The Origin and Development of Garden Cities: An Overview”, 33–43.15 Stern and Fishman, Paradise Planned: The Garden Suburb and the Modern City.16 Steuer, M. “A hundred years of town planning and the influence of Ebenezer Howard”, 377–8617 Geertse, “The International Garden City Campaign: Transnational Negotiations on Town Planning Methods 1913-1926”, 733–52. IFHTP was created in 1913 to promote the ideals of the garden city and joint action among professionals from different countries with the same goals.18 Domhardt, “The Garden City Idea in the CIAM Discourse on Urbanism: A Path to Comprehensive Planning”, 173–97.19 Blazy et al., “Garden Cities and Heritage of the Howard's Idea in Europe with Particular Consideration of Poland”, 805–22.20 Dragica et al., “The Origin and Development of Garden Cities: An Overview”, 33–43.21 Katz, “The Extension of Ebenezer Howard's Ideas on Urbanization Outside the British Isles: The Example of Palestine”, 467–73.22 Kolankiewicz, Nichols, and Freestone, “The Tribulations of Walter Burley Griffin's Final Australian Plan: Milleara as the Garden City of the Future 1925–1965”, 911–23.23 Bigon, “Garden City in the Tropics? French Dakar in Comparative Perspective”, 35–44.24 Totaforti, “The Garden City and the American Dream”, 125–40.25 Rego, “Brazilian Garden Cities and Suburbs: Accommodating Urban Modernity and Foreign Ideals”, 276–95.26 Macedo, “Maringá: A British Garden City in the Tropics”, 347–59.27 Rego, “Planted towns and territorial organization: the morphology of a settlement process in Brazil”, 101–109.28 Pires, “Da rocinha aos enclaves”, 114–28.29 Burke, História e Teoria Social.30 Levi, Sobre a micro-história.31 Souza, “O capital imobiliário e a produção do espaço urbano: o caso da Companhia City”, 43–68.32 Bacelli, “A Presença da Companhia City em São Paulo e a implantação do primeiro Bairro-Jardim”, 25–52.33 D’Elboux, “Os primeiros anos da Cia. City em São Paulo (1911–1915): a revisão de uma lacuna”, 1–29.34 Rego, “Garden Cities and suburbs in Brazil: recurrent adaptations of a concept”, 119–3035 Kolankiewicz, Nichols, and Freestone, “The Tribulations of Walter Burley Griffin's Final Australian Plan: Milleara as the Garden City of the Future 1925–1965”, 911–23.36 Totaforti, “The Garden City and the American Dream”, 125–40.37 Some of these developments are: Anhangabaú, Butantan, Alto da Lapa, Bella Alliance, Alto de Pinheiros.38 Souza, “O capital imobiliário e a produção do espaço urbano”, 71–151.39 Katz, “The Extension of Ebenezer Howard's Ideas on Urbanization Outside the British Isles: The Example of Palestine”, 467–73.40 Silva, “Alphaville e a (des)construção da cidade no Brasil”, 87–89.41 Almeida, “Companhia City Além-Rios”, 25–90.42 Aubin, R., “Ontem, hoje e amanhã”, 6–11.43 Almeida, “Companhia City Além-Rios”, 25–90.44 No records were found for the Jardim São Pedro neighborhood (Santana de Parnaíba), nor any documentation at the Real Estate Registry Office of Barueri, the municipality responsible for records of Santana de Parnaíba.45 Information obtained from land development approval processes provided by Cia. City.46 Feldman, “Planejamento e Zoneamento”, 222–74.47 Campos, “A ditadura dos empreiteiros”, 281–41548 Gottdiener, A produção social do espaço urbano.49 Smolka, “Expulsando os pobres e redistribuindo os ricos”,15.50 Macedo, “Maringá: A British Garden City in the Tropics”, 347–59.51 Sposito, “Novos conteúdos nas periferias urbanas das cidades médias do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil”, 126. This author considers a medium-sized city beyond the population size, an important regional hub, such as a link between larger and smaller cities. See also Canziane, “A experiência do planejamento estadual e suas conseqüências sobre o processo de (des)concentração da economia paulista”, 54–131; Negri, Concentração e desconcentração industrial em São Paulo (1880–1990).52 Gonçalves, “Novas configurações no desenvolvimento urbano paulista”, 39–53.53 Urban network is understood as a complex circulation system between centers with different functions and products (see Singer, Economia política da urbanização).54 Tavares, “Polos urbanos e eixos rodoviários no estado de São Paulo”, 87–100.55 Ibid.56 Rego, “A americanização das cidades brasileiras: novas formas urbanas e a ideia de unidade de vizinhança”, 1–17.57 Piracicaba, Act 1670, June 04, 1969.58 Information obtained from the register of the company “Nova Piracicaba Construtora e Imobiliária Ltda.” provided by the State of São Paulo Trade Board.59 Piracicaba, Act 2.641, January 04, 1985; Act 2.642, January 04, 1985; Act 2.791, September 12, 1986; Act 2.936, July 06, 1988; Act 2.986, December 05, 1988.60 Piracicaba, Act 2641, January 04, 1985.61 São Paulo (Estado). SEADE, Informe Demográfico n. 11.62 Piracicaba, Act 1670, June 04, 1969.63 Available by the company archive.64 Ibid.65 “Nova Piracicaba, a cidade-natureza”, Jornal de Piracicaba, 02 de julho de 1972; “Uma cidade saudável para crianças saudáveis”, Jornal de Piracicaba, 04 de julho de 1972; “20.000 árvores em Nova Piracicaba”, Jornal de Piracicaba, 07 de julho de 1972.66 Calil Jr., “O centro de Ribeirão Preto: os processos de expansão e setorização”, 125–54.67 Jardim Europa, Jardim Irajá and Jardim América. Information obtained from the approval processes of the developments, available at the Planning Department of the Riberão Preto Municipal Government.68 Calil Jr., “O centro de Ribeirão Preto: os processos de expansão e setorização”, 139–144.69 Ibid., 125–54.70 Ibid., 166–75.71 Brazil, Law 6.766, December 19, 1979. First Brazilian Act that provides for urban subdivisions and parameters to allow them.72 Curbs, gutters, water and sewage, except for public electrification and lighting, which were still the responsibility of the local government.73 To be defined by the Municipal Government according to the location.74 Ribeirão Preto, Act 3.346, December 25, 1977.75 Ibid. Articles 6° to 23°.76 Ribeirão Preto, Act 323, March 14, 1994; Act 2.158, February 21, 2007; Act 2.866, April 27, 2018.77 “Em pouco tempo Ribeirão Preto vai estar assim. De que lado você quer ficar?” Jornal Diário da Manhã, 12 de dezembro de1976.78 Tavares, “Polos urbanos e eixos rodoviários no estado de São Paulo”, 67–75.79 Cabral e Vidal, “Região de governo de Barretos”, 11–13.80 Ibid., 11–13.81 Ibid., 14.82 Barretos, Act 1519, September 08, 1977; Act 1.531, October 27, 1977; Act 1.551, December 27, 1977; Act 1.623, March 07, 1979.83 Barretos, Act 1473ª, September 21, 1976; Act 1662, September 03, 1979.84 Barretos, Act 1.069, February 08, 1965. Articles 6° to 34.85 Barretos, Act 1473A, September 21, 1976; Act 1.519, September 08, 1977; Act 1.531, October 27, 1977; Act 1.551, December 27, 1977; Act 1.623, March 7, 1979.86 Cabral e Vidal, Região de Governo de Barretos, 25–29.87 Such as the installation of commerce and services dedicated to this population and in sequence, of a shopping center and a gated community.88 “City Barretos, a nova maneira de viver.” O diário, 08 de outubro de 1980.89 Pescatori and Faria, “Dispersão urbana e empresas urbanizadoras”, 1–2690 Beloto, “Da região à metrópole”, 82; Ward, ‘Book review of Garden Cities and Town Planning’, 119.91 Ward, “Garden Cities and Town Planning: Mervyn Miller and Raymond Unwin”, 119.92 D’Elboux, “Os primeiros anos da Cia. City em São Paulo”, 1–29.93 Connor, review of Paradise Planned, 519.94 Information obtained from the analysis of the Cia. City developments.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior: [Grant Number 88887.480076/2020-00].Notes on contributorsSidney Piochi BernardiniSidney Piochi Bernardini is Professor in the School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning at Campinas State University, where he works on undergraduate and graduate courses. He is a member of the Graduate Program in Architecture, Technology and City (ATC) at the same School and he leads the Territory, Urbanization and Planning Research Group since 2016. He has experience in urban and territorial planning, working mainly on the following topics: history of urbanization and planning, public policies, housing, master plans and urban legislation.Ana Carolina Capelozza ManoAna Carolina Capelozza Mano is doctoral student on Graduate Program in Architecture Technology and City at the Campinas State University (FECFAU/UNICAMP). Holds a master's degree from the Postgraduate Program in Theory and History of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (IAI/USP) in 2016. She initially, trained as an architect, graduating from Paulista State University (FCT/UNESP) with a degree in 2012.