Arquitetura moderna bancária pelo nordeste (1968-1986)

Abstract

This thesis investigates the modern architecture in the Northeast produced by the Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB) from a set of 108 bank buildings designed by architects from Ceará or settled in Ceará between 1968 and 1986. These constructions were built to meet the needs of expansion and modernization of the service networking of the institution in the region during the Military Government (1964-1985), under the so-called Banking Reform (1964) and the regional development policy headed by the Superintendência de Desenvolvimento do Nordeste (SUDENE). Hence, to contribute for the construction of new narratives about the diffusion of modern Brazilian architecture, the research starts from an understanding of the Brazilian economic, political and socio-cultural context of insertion of these works, emphasizing the role of agents (the State, the Bank and the architects) in the process of regional development through the values of architectural modernism. The identification of modern conceptual and design references present in the works is based on the case studies of eleven examples considered most relevant, within four categories of analysis, according to Mahfuz's (2004) "contemporary quaterno": program, place, construction and formal structures. For that, the research has as supports: theoretical references; publications and documents of the BNB about the circumstances of the collection’s constitution; and the general characteristics’ survey of the set of modern buildings, in reference, to carry out an individual analysis of the most emblematic examples. The relevance of the work is justified by the contribution on the understanding of the pluralism of Brazilian modern architecture in a non-hegemonic scenario, both in the aspect of its manifestations, as well as in the specificities of its diffusion in the Northeast region, emphasizing the need for documentation, valorization and conservation of this modern collection, especially in view of the current technological paradigm that has provoked profound changes in banking architecture.