Who they are
João Batista Vilanova Artigas (Curitiba, 23 June 1915 — São Paulo, 12 January 1985) graduated as an engineer-architect from the USP Polytechnic School in 1937 — a school where the teaching of architecture derived from engineering, rather than from the fine arts, as in Rio. It is from this origin that the hallmark of his work comes: the appreciation of the construction process and the frank display of the reinforced-concrete structure.
His early production shows a recognised influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, visible in the design of the roofs, in the continuity between interior and exterior and in the exposed brick. In 1946 he received a Guggenheim Foundation grant and spent nearly a year in the United States. On his return, he took part in founding FAU-USP, in 1948, where he began teaching; in 1943 he had founded, with colleagues, the São Paulo Department of the IAB. A member of the Brazilian Communist Party, he made single-family houses a programme in themselves: educating a new ethic of living.
In the 1950s he criticised modernist rationalism in the articles Le Corbusier e o Imperialismo (1951) and Caminhos da Arquitetura Moderna (1952), and found in the new English brutalism the basis for arguing for a national architecture grounded in mastery of technique. From this comes what is known as the São Paulo school — or São Paulo brutalism: large spans, exposed reinforced concrete, structure on display. In 1961 he produced the series of projects that define these guiding lines: the Anhembi Tênis Clube, the Boat Garage of the Iate Clube Santa Paula, and the FAU-USP building, built from 1966 to 1969 with Carlos Cascaldi — a great central void, six floors linked by ramps, with no doors or marked divisions, architecture as a space for democratic coexistence.
Removed from FAU-USP in 1969 by the military dictatorship, he returned only with the amnesty, at the end of 1979, and resumed his chair in 1984. He left behind some seven hundred projects. From the International Union of Architects he received the Jean Tschumi Prize (1972), for his contribution to teaching, and the Auguste Perret Prize (1985), for his built work.
Language
- Style: São Paulo brutalism — large free spans, suspended horizontal planes, columns that taper where they meet the ground, spatial continuity without compartmentalisation.
- Materials and signature: exposed reinforced concrete bearing the mark of the formwork, top lighting, ramps in place of stairs, the central void as a covered plaza.
- Awards: Jean Tschumi Prize (UIA, 1972) and Auguste Perret Prize (UIA, 1985).
Landmark works
- Building of the University of São Paulo’s Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU-USP), at the Cidade Universitária — with Carlos Cascaldi.
- Edifício Louveira, in Higienópolis, next to Praça Vilaboim.
- Anhembi Tênis Clube, São Paulo.
- Boat Garage of the Iate Clube Santa Paula, São Paulo.
- Zezinho Magalhães Prado Housing Estate (Parque CECAP), in Guarulhos — with Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Fábio Penteado, 1968.
- Londrina Bus Station.
- Rio Branco Paranhos Residence (1943), São Paulo.
Signatures in the portfolio
No development in the collection carries this signature yet — it is here for the weight of the name in São Paulo's high end.
