Modernization and modernity in Maringá 1947-1967: episodes of architecture and a city on a pioneering front

Abstract

This article focuses on the architecture, urbanization and urbanism of an area colonized by the CTNP/CMNP in northern Paraná, from reflections on the dynamics of the circulation of ideas. It resumes the debate regarding the processes of cultural exchange as introduced by Schwarz and Carvalho Franco - the “misplaced ideas” - in the context of criticism aimed at the dualistic theories of Brazilian underdevelopment. Based on an approach that brings together architecture, city and social process, it initially performs a critical historiographical review that covers the constitution of the colonizing enterprises, the transport network, urbanization of the territory, the layout of the city and some of its buildings. It essays a renewed interpretation of the urban plan by Jorge Macedo Vieira for the city of Maringá and the architectural designs by José Augusto Bellucci for the CMNP, the local authorities and the Catholic Church, which are the object of its attention. It is assumed that an analysis of these dynamics may cast new perspectives on the investigation of the urbanization processes and the construction of Brazilian territory and cities.

Keywords:
circulation of ideas; Maringá, PR; modernization; Jorge de Macedo Vieira; José Augusto Belluci