Metrô, história e espaço público

Um estudo sobre as estações no centro de São Paulo

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between architecture, infrastructure and metropolis through the São Paulo subway stations located in the historical center. At the extremities of the Anhangabaú Valley, which covers an important road axis of the city, the stations São Bento and Anhangabaú were implanted in wide, small public squares. The research explores the historical process of the center next to the construction of these stations, relating them directly with the city, physically and symbolically. In this way, there is a dialog between the construction of the network in the scope of planning and the design of the project that conform the final works of the stations, from the underground to the transformations in the surroundings. The work retakes the place of the circulation infrastructure in the urban evolution of the city and the potentialities and losses of these equipments as public architecture, central theme in the search for the urban dimension of the architecture in the contemporary metropolises.

Key-word: Subway stations, São Paulo, infrastructure, historic center, public space.

This work is part of the PhD research in progress at USP with funding from FAPESP - Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo.