Uses of Primitivism. Stone, clay and modern architecture.

• Autor(a) principal: Cabral, Claudia Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Bender, Helena
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Pós. Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo da FAUUSP (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/posfau/article/view/113342
• topic: Primitivismo. Casa operária de Monlevade. Grupo Austral.; Primitivism. Working class houses at Monlevade. Austral group.

Despite problematic, the notions of “primitive” and “primitivism” were essential categories to modern art and architecture in Latin America, for both producers (architects and artists) and interpreters (historians and critics). These notions have been strongly associated both with the Latin American contribution to modernity, and with the historiographical assessment of this contribution. The main goal of this text is to point out certain “uses of primitivism” in South American architecture, as coincident with the presence of natural materials such as stone and clay, and pre-industrial building techniques. Although this presence could be also discussed in terms of its relationship to the vernacular, the notion of “primitivism” was chosen on purpose, as it exhibits an impasse (in some way indifferent to the vernacular), of an intellectual, and not natural, connection with tradition. The article finishes with some notes on Lucio Costa’s proposal for working class houses at Monlevade in Brazil (1936), and the alternatives presented by Austral group to rural houses in Argentina (1939).