The cultural heritage of Brás neighborhood: reflections about a specific portion

Abstract

This paper intends to reflect about the cultural heritage in the Brás neighborhood in São Paulo, as a result of a research about built heritage, constructed in the period of formation and consolidation of Brás as an industrial neighborhood. The research shows that the oficial custody of this heritage paid attention to the monumental architecture - that has representative buildings as the train station, the immigrantion office and the Brás church - rather than ordinary architecture. It supports that the remaining “ordinary architecture” of the neighborhood, represented by the residential villas, independent houses, factorys and industrial sheds, composes an important identity element of this region of the city. As they are not under custody of any governmental institution, these smaller proportion buildings with simpler characteristics and produced with no pretensions to be exceptional, has suffered constant modifications as well as the surrounding area in the context of the metropole’s dynamics.