Re-democratization and the city in dispute: the debate in the architecture and urbanism magazines between 1985 and 1990

Abstract

This paper investigates different instances of the ongoing debate in architecture throughout the process of re-democratization in Brazil, from articles published between 1985 and 1990 in the Brazilian magazines Projeto and Arquitetura e Urbanismo (AU). The reorganization of state-market relations — one of the facets of the re-democratization process — has given new contours to the city’s dispute between the various representatives of the public and private spheres. On the other hand, the field of architecture and its different instances actively participated in the debates about re-democratization and, sometimes more, sometimes less explicitly, its actors defended their political positions and fed the discussions about the new Constitution. Therefore, there was a two-way street between the debates in architecture and the dispute for the city in the debates over the 1988 Constitution. The balance of something that can be called the “modernist heritage” in Brazil and, specifically, the association between the practice of urban planning and Lucio Costa’s Brasilia Pilot Plan, elucidates such positions. As a result, this paper approaches different fronts of the ongoing debate in the field throughout the time frame, establishing a new framework on Architecture’s history during these years.