Quintais urbanos: Funções e papéis na casa brasileira e amazônica

Abstract

Ever since colonial times, backyards have been present as a traditional element in urban houses in the Amazon and in Brazil in general. However, currently, most new homes built in large cities in this region and throughout Brazil forego the spaces contiguous to homes called backyards. The purpose of this study is to conduct a historical analysis of the importance and functions of backyards in Brazilian homes, and in the Amazon in particular. The article is divided into three sections. The first discusses the concepts of urban backyards and houses; the second analyzes the transformations in housing typology, highlighting the continuities and the changes in the importance and functions of backyards. Finally, it concludes by showing that, with urban growth and the development of capitalism, the emergence of modern and post-modern patterns of living has increasingly been prompting the ebbing away of a backyard's traditional functions of producing food, being a favored locus in which to engage on domestic activities, forms of leisure and of family life. As a result, backyards have seen their concept and functions or have simply disappeared. Consequently, an alert sounds to the consequences of this process for the quality of urban life, especially in Amazonian towns.