The apartment building and the worker housing: debates and production (Brazil, 1930 - 1960)

ABSTRACT

From the debate in the 1930s and 1940s about the apartment building and its convenience as housing for workers, this paper discusses the limits of the spread of this type in factories and mining companies action in Brazil providing housing for their employees. It shows how in their action, collective housing was, above all, a solution offered to unmarried employees. The trajectory of the typology of collective dwellings for families is another purpose of the article. It shows how some of these buildings reveal a moment of transition between the single-family home and the apartment building, while others reflect the legitimacy of this way of living and the fixation of a typology.

KEYWORDS:
Apartment building; Collective housing; Workers’ housing; Economic housing