A Universidade e a cidade - Por uma história da Arquitetura Moderna da

Abstract

Between 1940 and 1950, the population of Fortaleza has risen from 180 thousand to 280 thousand inhabitants. The repercussion about this huge demographic growth is observed in different spheres of public life. Most of the architecture projects were in the hands of designers who did not have any theoretical formation, leaning basically on their experience, accumulated over time. However, when Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) was created in 1954, it presented a new enthusiasm for the city architectural panorama. With the saying “The Universal for the Regional”, the Dean Antonio Martins Filho, idealizer and founder of the institution, affirmed the compromise with the modernizing transformations of the nation, associating the importance of public and private university systems involved with a development project for Brazil. It is also worth saying how important the creation of the University was to Fortaleza. It enabled the action of modern architect groups. Opposing the present qualitative absence in the prevailing projecting and constructive action, the young professional actuation inserted the city into the production of Brazilian modern architecture. This work aims to analyze the original edified patrimony projects of UFC, Benfica Campus, recognizing the modernist principles, and its later interventions. Starting from its historical importance to the modern risk insertion in Fortaleza, we aim to reach the interventions which are responsible for the changes in use and adaptation that these buildings suffered because of the University new demands, which implicated in the preexistences of modern principles. On one hand, the idea affirms the importance of UFC modern line architecture legacy to the architecture history in Fortaleza. On the other, it reaffirms the criticism about the contemporary interventions. Concluding, we raise a discussion about an emergent protection action for this legacy. The edifications of Benfica have been registered by the UFC Architecture Department and IPHAN-Ce.