https://www.academia.edu/7095094/Urbanization_in_the_Brazilian_Hinterlands_Forgotten_Century_Growth_Patterns_in_Planaltina This paper examines the patterns of urbanization in Planaltina, a town founded during the period of economic slump in Goiás state comprised between the decline of gold mining in the late eighteenth century and the construction of the new state capital, Goiânia, in the 1930s. Laid out on a rough grid sometime after 1811, this town belies several key concepts of the “canonical” Portuguese-Brazilian city, such as site selection, lot proportion, and density: it was built by a valley, with wide and shallow lots having ample side yards, and its houses are often misaligned. These features are compared with preceding and contemporary towns in central Brazil, highlighting general changes in urban patterns during the pre-industrial nineteenth century throughout the region, as well as aspects unique to the case of Planaltina. Changes in regional highway networks, the introduction of the automobile and of the aeroplane predictably influenced the growth of the town. Starting in the early twentieth century, infill begins to occur, with lots being subdivided either lengthwise or breadth wise, as well as changes in the historic centre brought about more recently by the demographic and economic effects of planned extensions to the city.

1. URBANISATION IN THE
BRAZILIAN HIGHLAND’S
‘FORGOTTEN CENTURY’:
!
GROWTH PATTERNS IN
PLANALTINA
Pedro Paulo Palazzo
Assistant Professor
Laboratório de Estudos da Urbe —
LabeUrbe
University of Brasilia School of
Architecture
palazzo@unb.br

2. THE FORGOTTEN
CENTURY
Economic and demographic
stagnation in mining regions,
c. 1780–1880
!
New agricultural settlements in
Goiás known from c. 1845 onwards

3. • Ridge-top towns
• Streets as roads
• Monuments on prominent
topographical situation
!
!
!
• Ouro Preto (inhabited 1697,
incorporated 1711)
CANONICAL MODEL OF
PORTUGUESE-BRAZILIAN
URBANISM

4. • Urbanisation around river valleys
• Narrow and deep lots
!
!
!
!
• Goiás, incorporated 1727
CANONICAL MODEL OF
PORTUGUESE-BRAZILIAN
URBANISM

5. • Attached houses, no setbacks
• One-story or two-story colonial
types (“casa de meia morada”)
!
!
!
!
• Goiás, incorporated 1727
CANONICAL MODEL OF
PORTUGUESE-BRAZILIAN
URBANISM

6. CANONICAL MODEL OF
PORTUGUESE-BRAZILIAN
URBANISM
• Even planned towns with regular
street grids follow similar patterns
!
!
!
!
!
• Mariana, incorporated 1712

8. Location of Goiás state and Planaltina

9. Highways through Goiás, 1736–1938
Redrawn after a map by Ana Laterza

11. Saint Sebastian Chapel
Built 1811, enlarged 1880, renovated 1911

12. SITE
• Not on a major ridge, but near
swampy stream
• Away from main road
• But critical passage
• Chapel built mid-slope, not
prominent location
• Urban growth away from church
and stream, not around them

14. PUBLIC SPACE
• First main street follows
secondary ridge, other streets
roughly parallel to contour lines
• Urban growth away from church

15. PUBLIC SPACE
• First main street follows
secondary ridge, other streets
roughly parallel to contour lines
• Urban growth away from church
• Goiás Avenue: around 1880–1895,
parallel to first and aligned with a
stream ford

16. PUBLIC SPACE
• First main street follows
secondary ridge, other streets
roughly parallel to contour lines
• Urban growth away from church
• Goiás Avenue: around 1880–1895,
parallel to first and aligned with a
stream ford
• Cemetery 1893

17. PUBLIC SPACE
• First main street follows
secondary ridge, other streets
roughly parallel to contour lines
• Urban growth away from church
• Goiás Avenue: around 1880–1895,
parallel to first and aligned with a
stream ford
• Cemetery 1893
• Major urban expansion 1921

18. PUBLIC SPACE
• First main street follows
secondary ridge, other streets
roughly parallel to contour lines
• Urban growth away from church
• Goiás Avenue: around 1880–1895,
parallel to first and aligned with a
stream ford
• Cemetery 1893
• Major urban expansion 1921
• Public Buildings 1929–1942
Town Hall
School
Town Council
Parish Church

19. PUBLIC SPACE
• First main street follows
secondary ridge, other streets
roughly parallel to contour lines
• Urban growth away from church
• Goiás Avenue: around 1880–1895,
parallel to first and aligned with a
stream ford
• Cemetery 1893
• Major urban expansion 1921
• Public Buildings 1929–1942
• Road to south-east 1938

20. PUBLIC SPACE
• First main street follows
secondary ridge, other streets
roughly parallel to contour lines
• Urban growth away from church
• Goiás Avenue: around 1880–1895,
parallel to first and aligned with a
stream ford
• Cemetery 1893
• Major urban expansion 1921
• Public Buildings 1929–1942
• Road to south-east 1938
• Regular subdivision

21. Treze de Maio Street looking west, 2012

22. Praça da República (now Salviano Monteiro Square), c. 1935
Author unknown, Federal District Public Archive

23. Goiás Avenue, c. 1945
Author unknown, holdings of the Federal District Culture Department

24. Salvador Coelho Avenue looking north, c. 1925–1965
Author unknown, holdings of the Federal District Culture Department

25. PARCELLING
• Income for church holdings

26. PARCELLING
• Income for church holdings
• First stage: wide, shallow and
irregular lots

27. PARCELLING
• Income for church holdings
• First stage: wide, shallow, and
irregular lots
• Second stage: wide, shallow, and
somewhat regular lots

28. PARCELLING
• Income for church holdings
• First stage: wide, shallow, and
irregular lots
• Second stage: wide, shallow, and
somewhat regular lots
• Third stage: regular and repetitive
land subdivision

29. PARCELLING
• Income for church holdings
• First stage: wide, shallow, and
irregular lots
• Second stage: wide, shallow, and
somewhat regular lots
• Third stage: regular and repetitive
land subdivision
• Fourth stage: infill and
subdivision within preexisting
blocks

30. Two land subdivision plans for Planaltina
Left: Velusiano Antônio da Silva, 1958 (Public Archive of the Federal District)
Right: Paulo Magalhães, 1966 (Federal District Culture Department)

31. BUILDING TYPES
• Traditional colonial housing plans
• Transitional and eclectic plans
• Side yards everywhere

32. BUILDING TYPES
• Traditional colonial housing types
(blue)
• Transitional and eclectic types
(green)
• Post-1969 affordable houses
(brown)

33. “House of Dona Negrinha” in Planaltina, c. 1896
Photo: 2010
Plan: as surveyed in 2010 (Leandro Peredo)

34. “Blue House” in Planaltina, 1926
Photo: author unknown, c. 1926–1938 (Federal District Culture Department)
Plan: as surveyed in 2009

35. Houses (c. 1940–1965) on Hugo Lobo Street
Photo: Alessio Gallizio, 2012

36. URBANISATION IN THE
BRAZILIAN HIGHLAND’S
‘FORGOTTEN CENTURY’:
!
GROWTH PATTERNS IN
PLANALTINA
Pedro Paulo Palazzo
Assistant Professor
Laboratório de Estudos da Urbe —
LabeUrbe
University of Brasilia School of
Architecture
palazzo@unb.br