ABSTRACT
This article analyses the concept of “progress”, in architecture, in the context of research into new rational solutions that would support the construction of the great urban centres of the European modernity at the end of the XVIII century and beginning of the XIX. It marks the moment when “progress” in architecture arrived in Brazil, including the city of Recife, as “modern architecture”, adopting classicism not only in buildings but in all social domains. French neoclassicism is one of the facets of classicism that is taken as a reference for the production of a variety of designs of buildings, as well as interiors of houses. The illustrations demonstrate how the patterns of classical aesthetics were incorporated, suggesting that it is still the reference adopted in the current architectural composition.
