O olhar em confrontação: Arquitetura Moderna no Brasil por Hitchcock e Mindlin

Abstract

The 1940s and 50s were marked by cultural exchanges between Brazil and foreign countries, which resulted in several publications on the production of modern architecture in Brazil, such as the books Latin American Architecture since 1945 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1955) and Modern Architecture in Brazil by Henrique Mindlin (1956). Realizing that the foreign and national views on modern architecture in Brazil reflect political and cultural issues experienced by its authors, it is necessary to understand the interpretations of these works from these perspectives and bring to the light of consciousness the unsaid of these narratives, which are forming canonical structures. Thus, contributing to the constant process of historiographical revision, this work is developed based on the general objective of confronting the presentation of works of modern architecture in Brazil carried out under the eyes – foreign and national – of Hitchcock (1955) and Mindlin ([1956]1999), in order to reflect on their interpretations and representations. To this end, the research contextualizes the repercussions of modern architecture in Brazil in the 1940s and 50s, nationally and internationally; investigates data sources through authors, manuals and their introductory texts; presents the methodological construction for defining the categories of analysis – extracted from the characteristics of modern architecture in Brazil listed by Hitchcock (1955) and Mindlin ([1956]1999) – and the universe of study. Based on a sample of two works – Conjunto Residencial de Pedregulho and Centro Tecnológico da Aeronáutica – the work indicates convergences and divergences in the narratives about modern architecture in Brazil presented by the two authors.