Alguns apontamentos teóricos sobre a cidade industrial

Abstract

The advent of industrialization brought profound changes to urban areas throughout the world. The age of mechanization, developed mainly during the nineteenth century and consolidated in the twentieth century, effected permanent changes in the very notion of time and a rupture in the urban scale that assigns new meanings to the notions of city and urbanization. The urban growth which stemmed from these changes promotes important modifications in the relationship between man and nature and, therefore, between cities and the surrounding countryside. A major part of these exchanges is due to the development of new technologies and skills, especially the knowledge of structural materials and techniques for their analysis, the invention of the safety elevator ”“ which allowed the vertical growth of structures and the multiplication of urban land ”“, and the development of rail and road transport facilities. The combination of all these factors originated several architectural and urbanistic postulates, among which the most prominent are, at opposite ends, garden cities and towers isolated amidst green and public areas. This paper is grounded on the assumption that updating possible interpretations of such events and understanding their conceptual bases in the light of contemporary theories represent relevant points in the discussion of issues surrounding the management and planning of a desirable future for Latin American metropolises.