A look at the life and work of Luzimar Telles and its contribution to the modern architecture of Cataguases

Abstract

The article presents and discusses the biography of the architect Luzimar Telles, hitherto unexplored, highlighting his education and professional trajectory in Cataguases, where he settled. In its turn, the city stands out in the context of the historiography of modern Brazilian architecture for its significant heritage. It reports the research method used during the biographical research stage, part of a larger investigation that analyzed twenty-eight residential works by the architect. Such methodology mainly focused on documentary surveys in public and private collections in Cataguases and Rio de Janeiro, in addition to semi-structured interviews with the remaining family members. In this study, which sought parallels between Telles' life and work, it was inferred that the beginning of his professional practice as an architect has to do with his technical drawing skills and started even before his academic training. Telles was observed as a furniture designer and the existence of a significant change in his architectural language adopted since the 1970s. This work's contribution is to approach, for the first time, in a systematic way, the professional trajectory of this architect, appointed as the author of the largest number of modern works in Cataguases. As a result, a deepening of Luzimar Telles' professional trajectory and his performance in Cataguases was obtained. Telles' professional activity time and the list of his projects in the city have been significantly extended, thus establishing more precise reference bases for the continuation of investigations about his production.