Poética da economia na arquitetura: do Grupo Arquitetura Nova (GAN) à produção arquitetônica contemporânea

Abstract

The constructive experience found in the work of the architects Sérgio Ferro, Rodrigo Lefèvre and Flávio Império, members of the Arquitetura Nova Group (GAN), linked to the Brazilian political, cultural and artistic context in the period comprehended between 1960-1970 contributed to renew the modern Brazilian architectural production based on the foundations of a concept, which they called “poética da economia”. The GAN proposal considered the technical knowledge of the academic background mainly influenced by João Batista Vilanova Artigas and his constructive approaches, the political position and the daily experience of the civil construction worker performed in the “construction site”. The aim was to propose economic solutions, the use of alternative unconventional constructive technologies avoiding superfluous elements. Architecture quality was then the result of a systematic application of economic decisions. The experiments gave priority to rationalization and pre-framed building elements, which were originally found in media class architecture projects, but this procedure revealed an innovative proposition toward popular housing. GAN’s “poética da economia”, more than his professional performance sense and reasons, in the reflections that incites, especially the criticism of the “construction site” and the policy strategies for a constructive approach focused on economic factors, “mínimo útil, mínimo construtivo e mínimo didático”. This work aims at: 1. investigating the origin and conceptualizing these three economic factors; 2. evaluating how the “poética da economia” can be identified as a Brazilian modernity architectural expression; 3. thinking about the possible perspectives for the “poética da economia” in the contemporary architectural production.