Retrieving the Past: The Colonial House in Rio de Janeiro (1767-1822)

This paper addresses Rio de Janeiro´s house in the last decades of the colonial period (1767–1822). Although Brazilian house was well studied in the last century, little was known about Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian house is regarded as the result of the encounter of three traditions—European, Native American and African. In this work we discuss the political and historical background of these studies, and the importance of the house as a symbol of national unity. The omission of historiography on Rio de Janeiro´s house is due to the destruction of the traditional urban fabric by great urban surgeries in the first decade of the 20th century. As there are scarcely any remaining 18th- and 19th century buildings, we used written documentation to reconstitute the colonial houses, mainly judicial evaluations of buildings in post-mortem inventories. We could recover the dimensions of plots and buildings, interior arrangement, building materials, constructive technique and use. We worked with the concepts of type and typology to create a method of interpreting the recovered data. As the work went on, a new image of the Rio de Janeiro´s house emerged. Far from the great buildings that are traditionally the focus of studies on Brazilian Architecture, these houses were the lodging of most of the city´s inhabitants, with no access to real estate property. The work with written documents, not typical of architectonic research, allowed the reconstitution of a disappeared patrimony, advancing in the comprehension of the dwelling forms in Rio de Janeiro.

Volume Editors
David Covo & Gabriel Mérigo Basurto

ISBN
0-935502-57-2