Advisor: Otavio Leonidio
Defense date: 26/08/2015
Abstract
What does it mean to be between architecture and infrastructure? This
dissertation seeks to question the limits and find some boundaries between these
categories based on project analysis that seem not to belong exclusively to the
universe of one or the other. This work will point out the basis on which
traditional architecture and infrastructure are defined, in order to, when their edges
are established, displacements can be observed. The critical setting lived in 1960
is the scenario which architecture limits seem to become pervasive, not only by
the emergence of practices that extend architectures field, but also incorporating
the infrastructure in its sphere of work. Part of the projects discussed here take
into account the fact that there is a transversality claim in these fields, specifically
the one seeking to redefine the “ground” as architecture. The fact that they were
developed by Brazilian architects in the context of the second half of the twentieth
century, this is an indication of both, the resonance of this critical discipline
review on the national scene, and the effective role of Brazilian architecture in this
inflection. Brasilia’s central platform (1957-60) by Lucio Costa will be examined
thoroughly as it summarises the connection between architecture and
infrastructure, being responsible not only for the land drawing operations, where it
was implemented but also for the merging of the constructive elements which
have overlapped.