A new title from Edições Sesc SP, Oswaldo Corrêa Gonçalves arquiteto cidadão, highlights the main contributions of the engineer, architect, and urban planner across the various fields in which he worked. Born in Santos in 1917, he designed residential projects, sports facilities, schools, and institutional buildings, including the first Sesc/Senac units. Organized by architects Gino Caldatto Barbosa and Ruy Eduardo Debs Franco, the book also highlights his role in founding the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAU-USP), FAU Santos, and the Institute of Architects of Brazil in São Paulo (IAB-SP).
In the foreword of this new release, Sesc SP director Danilo Santos de Miranda states that by addressing the honoree's diverse professional facets, the book allows us to view the architect as a platform for mediation. “The very structure of the book is consistent with this premise. Organized around the various roles Gonçalves assumed throughout his career, it suggests the image of a crossroads of motivations. It becomes clear that the author-creator cannot be dissociated from his other personas: the engaged teacher, the questioning intellectual, the cultural manager, and the advocate for the profession,” he says.
According to Miranda, the many intersections between Gonçalves and Sesc were highly significant. “For the architect, they offered the opportunity to align modern principles with educational ideals, designing shared Sesc and Senac facilities in the 1950s and 1960s (in Santos, Marília, Bauru, São José do Rio Preto, and Ribeirão Preto—the latter currently housing Sesc Ribeirão Preto), as well as the headquarters shared by both entities at the time (now the Senac headquarters). For the institution, this was a pivotal moment in the maturation of its values, for which Oswaldo's urban and modernizing vision was strategically symbolic,” he states.
A Complex Personality
In the book's introduction, the authors state that the work, the result of extensive research, does not aim to present a precise biographical profile, but rather reveals aspects of the life of Gonçalves, who graduated in architecture in 1941 when it was still tied to the engineering program at the Escola Politécnica of São Paulo—a field in which he also graduated from the same institution four years later. “In addition to addressing the achievements of his professional work and his actions as both architect and citizen, we sought to broaden the understanding of his complex personality,” they explain.
According to Barbosa and Franco, the honoree—whom they consider a prominent figure of a generation of professionals aligned with the modern ideal of designing buildings and cities as tools for social transformation—followed a diverse career path. “To use a term currently in vogue in the job market, he was not a ‘specialist,’ but he had an immense commitment to the profession, demonstrating in practice the architect's universalist vision in daily work. His professional trajectory merges with the paths taken by the history of modern architecture in Brazil, marked by ideological commitments and a national development project, where the consolidation of the profession relied on organizing its representative professional associations and academic training,” they say.
The authors also highlight Gonçalves's commitment to expanding the professional field through his involvement in exhibitions, such as the São Paulo Art Biennial and the International Architecture Biennial, his advocacy for the establishment of architecture programs in the state of São Paulo, and his role in founding the São Paulo chapter of the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB/SP) shortly after the end of World War II. Regarding this, fellow architect and urban planner Júlio Roberto Katinsky—a contemporary of Gonçalves—states in the book's preface that this was fundamental to the consolidation and development of the profession, establishing architecture as essential to civilization and transforming it from an activity reserved for a few into one practiced by many dedicated to community life.
Like Katinsky, the authors note that the honoree was only belatedly recognized by his peers as one of the most distinguished protagonists of this era. “Gonçalves's outstanding work never resonated with architectural criticism, which repeatedly remains silent regarding his importance to the history of Brazilian modernism,” Barbosa and Franco write. However, despite the relative isolation of his final years, the architect, who passed away in 2005, received honors that underscore the impact of his professional work on behalf of the public. Accolades such as the Golden Collar from the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB) and the Mário de Andrade Prize, awarded by the São Paulo state government for outstanding achievement in Brazilian architecture, are joined by the recognition of the Santos City Council, which granted him the title of Emeritus Citizen for his life's work.
Edições Sesc São Paulo titles can be purchased at all Sesc São Paulo units, major bookstores, through apps like the Apple Store and Google Play, and also via the website www.sescsp.org.br/livraria
This article was written by Romullo Baratto. The translation is powered by AI.
