1998 Abstracts (Summaries)

Architecture and the Production of Postcard Images: Tradition vs. Critical Regionalism in Curitiba

Irazabal Zurita, Clara E.

In Curitiba, Brazil, the building of architectural monuments that make use of a direct vocabulary of tradition has been one of the major means to construct the city image in the last two decades. The government of Curitiba has plagued the city with foreign-styled landmarks mostly based on selective samples of European traditions. Such attempts strive to construct a city image that creates a sense that Curitiba has a heritage connected with the European established traditions. Examples of those ethnic landmarks are the Polonaise Memorial, and the German, Italian and Portuguese parks. Such monuments depict a cosmopolitan, international city, freed from the tortuous memories of black slavery and Indian submission that tint history elsewhere in Brazil. This selective editing of history valorizes and idealizes parts of the pasts, while erasing others.