Architecture, Urbanism and Social Mobility: Approaches between El Alto, Recife and São Paulo

Abstract

This article aims to understand the relationship between the emergence of economic elites in Latin America and the formation of physical, organizational and aesthetic spaces in cities. Moving away from readings that read this type of architecture still through the character of exoticism, a hegemonic vision within the debates of architecture and urbanism, we work with the hypothesis of these phenomena as complex processes, not isolated, connecting experiences in different locations. Taking as a motto the example of the Bolivian city of El Alto and its transformations with the lead role of the architect Freddy Mamani, this work focuses on the analysis of four regions in two Brazilian cities - North and South Zones of Recife and North and East Zones of São Paulo, offering a first look at the similarities and differences between territorial dynamics and the result of socioeconomic relations in the development of localities, especially through the work of architecture and construction professionals.

Keywords: Latin America, New Elites, Recife, São Paulo.