Pompa e circunstância: a construção do Edifício Dona Palmira

Abstract

The Dona Palmira Building, as well as its immediate urban insertion area, in the heart of Batel Neighborhood, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, is the object study of the present inquiry. Designed by the prominent architect Ayrton João “Lolô” Cornelsen, and built by Construtora Comercial e Industrial S/A, Comasa, the pioneering construction stood out sumptuous in townscape. The main objective is to comprehend the process sublimated in the dissemination of a Modern architecture repertoire in the City of Curitiba, considered as “peripheral” in a general architecture panorama. Through documentary analysis and synthesis of primary sources such as plants, sections, elevations, scriptures, journals, minutes, permits, photographic registries, etc., and regular methodologic comparison of increasing successive differences on the city’s aerial plants and photographs, is, added to the secondary sources and bibliographic references, an unpublished record. It is understood that the city’s expansion, and more specifically of the neighborhood is not a direct result of mere real estate speculation, nor of the fraternal spirit, but rather the result of much more complexes decisions that certainly surpass the whimsical discourses of chance. This is why project and neighborhood both influenced each other under the aegis of all pomp and circumstance.