Modern Architecture, Plano de Ação, and Social Role of Architecture

Abstract

The production of modern public buildings during Carvalho Pinto’s São Paulo state government (1959–1963), known as Plano de Ação (Action Plan, in a free translation), or PAGE, was one of the greatest moments of this architecture in terms of modern architecture diffusion and the engagement of their leading characters. Since its genesis, Brazilian Modernism in visual arts, architecture, and urbanism set two programmatic vectors that would further set its experience and international recognition: the national dimension of the local modern production and the commitment to the modernization of the country. Focusing on the social concern beyond these two vectors, also drawing on the already achieved hegemony of Modern Architecture in the 1950s, the buildings produced by PAGE contribute to the diffusion and development of the modern language in the state of São Paulo, not being limited by the mere repetition of established solutions. This paper presents the potentialities of using available digital technologies such as redrawing and digital tridimensional modeling for the study of an architectural heritage which lacks proper historiographical acknowledgment. This research uses digital models as an analysis device for the original architectural conception of a project and the altered ambiances made by renovations and ampliations, generally accomplished inadequately.