The obsolescence of children’s parks and the equipment’s destinations two examples from Santo Amaro, São Paulo

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between children's educational equipment and the urban context of the city of São Paulo between 1935 and 1985, a period in which public institutions called parks and children's corners lasted. The equipment was intended for the care of working-class children and young people and was designed by Mário de Andrade during his participation as São Paulo's Secretary of Culture. The objective is to recover the history of playgrounds and illustrate how the equipment distributed in the different areas of the city, mainly in places with an industrial vocation, implanted in large lots, in strategically located points and with relative visual permeability between the interior and the exterior, contributed to the appropriation and participation of the population in the social activities promoted by the municipality. The historiographic-based research is based on the argument that the deactivation of playgrounds due to the modernization of educational policies in the children's and youth area reflected in changes not only in pedagogical and social parameters, but also impacted urban relations and their articulation. with the immediate surroundings. The two case studies selected in Santo Amaro represent two distinct examples of uses after their deactivation.

Keywords: Children's playground, working class neighborhood, Santo Amaro, public policy.