The high-rise building and the urban design: the competition for 5a. avenida building

Abstract

The article proposes a reflection on the relationship between the design of the building and the design of the city by analyzing the proposals presented in the 5th Avenue Building competition in 1958, at Paulista Avenue, by Pedro Paulo de Melo Saraiva and
Abelardo de Souza, respectively first and second placed. The main objective is to analyze the material presented by architects seeking to understand the proposed solutions for the buildings and the relations established with the urban space of the Avenue. Both projects are based on the same principle of spatial organization – an office tower placed on a commercial basement -, however, with very different formal developments and urban insertions. The competition period features a moment of intense transformation on Paulista Avenue. The beginning of the verticalization process is accompanied by a change in uses and relationships between buildings and public space. Saraiva builds the discourse of the project by proposing a reflection on the verticalization of Paulista and the possibilities that opened up, extrapolates the solution of a specific problem giving a broader meaning to the contest.