VIRTUAL London Heritages Conference

Abstract

Developed at the beginning of the 20th century by Ebenezer Howard, the “garden city” was an urban planning concept that had the aim of solving the social and environmental problems of large industrial cities through the construction of new urban centers that merged the advantages of both the countryside and the city. To understand how the garden city model was applied to new neighborhoods in the city of São Paulo, this work had as its main objective to evaluate to what extent the original concept was modified to adapt to different socioeconomic realities and whether its original social goals were achieved. Two neighborhoods were selected as case studies: Jardim América and Jardim da Saúde. The morphology of these subdivisions became popular during the 20th century among private developers, being attractive to consumers from different social classes looking for quieter spaces to live. Jardim América, designed by English architects Parker and Unwin, has been an elite area since its beginnings. Jardim da Saúde, however, has been marketed mainly to the middle and working classes. Both are currently listed, albeit by different agencies, under the definition of “environmental neighborhoods” due to the invaluable contribution of their green areas to the city of São Paulo. The two neighborhoods are also defined as Strictly Residential Zones, according to the current legislation of the 2014 São Paulo Master Plan. Despite their notable similarities, these two neighborhoods were chosen as case studies to compare the history of their subdivisions, their initial and current occupations, as well as the impact of zoning and listing on the internal organization of the neighborhoods and their relationship with the city of São Paulo as a whole.