Mercado de São Brás e seu entorno: tramas e sentidos de um lugar

Abstract

This dissertation aims to examine the constitution of the urban history of the built environment of Sao Bras Market in Belem do Para, in the period from 1950 to 1970, an eclectic construction dating from the end of the rubber boom in the Amazon and the management of the Superintendent Antonio Lemos. The market is a monument which belongs to the patrimonial collection of the State and is active nowadays. From the notion of the urban fabric, we established relationships between the architectural and historical facts in order to investigate how they have progressed over time, resulting in a space where architecture contributes to the development of social and business relationships. Assuming that geographical proximity and economic importance of two urban facilities, the Sao Bras Market and the Belem-Bragança Iron Station, have generated a dynamic that attracted other architectures, we investigated the influence of public policies of modernization and progress, which is reflected in the appearance of the built environment and typological relations with the market. Using the methodology of case study and the combinations of interpretive / qualitative history strategies, this paper attempts to present that the intrinsic features of the buildings fulfilled their role and that events in their spaces produced perceptual phenomena in existential place. The public market and its surroundings condense social practices that associated to these phenomena ensure their continuity in the city, given the context of contemporary society.