Instructions for climbing an escalator

Abstract

This is an experimental research inspired by Júlio Cortázar’s chronicle “Instructions for Climbing a Staircase”. The research aimed to analyze individuals and collectives interacting with an escalator, aiming at understanding this space-object through its rhythm, its users’ behavior and the composition of its surroundings, from the architectural and urbanistic point of view. The proposal consisted in capturing the relation of users with an escalator in an analogical photoshoot, gathered in the photo book Futuro do Passado. The photographs were taken in the expanded city center of São Paulo, which concentrates most of the escalators since the 1950s, representing the various layers of time in the city, as well as the socioeconomic trajectory of the population. The first escalator in the metropolis of São Paulo was installed in 1955, at Galeria Prestes Maia. At the first moment, it caused surprise, being an element of modern technology embedded in an urban fabric and architecture originated from other design precepts. Since then, it has become a frequent element in several types of buildings, not only as an index of modernity, but also of a certain generic architecture that composes the present São Paulo.