Espaço educacional contemporâneo reflexões sobre os rumos da arquitetura escolar na cidade de São Paulo (1935-2013)

Abstract

This article develops an analysis on the history of educational spaces in São Paulo, based on contemporary issues involving the Centro Educacional Unificado (CEU, Unified Educational Center) a complex of educational, cultural and recreational institutions, deployed by the city of São Paulo(2002-2004), in the low-income areas that showed a lack of social facilities, public spaces and urban infrastructure. CEUs were hailed by their developers and specialized media as urbanity inductors because they create a distinctive public space, which referred to the formal city, serving both the public and the local school community.This historical analysis is read from three points of view: the school is at the same time a public policy, an architectural typology and an urban intervention.Studying that analytical framework, this work sought the understanding on how the regular public schools ended up becoming this multi-proposal facility which groups a series of institutions that were traditionally distributed through the city, equalizing the provision of services to underserved populations,however stresses the relation between the school and the city.