ABSTRACT
In Europe, at the end of World War II, as a response to the enormous habitational deficit generated in that period, the State emerged as manager of collective habitation problems with the building of great habitational complexes. Grouping minimal habitations around a series of collective social services, these complexes, by their study of internal details of each dwelling, by the use of industrial production techniques, by the care for insolation and natural ventilation and the landscaping implantation, by what they represented of innovation in terms of organization and planning, ended up becoming the marks of a new conception of urban space and of a new architecture. In Brazil, the new paradigms presented by the “Modern Architecture”, that arose in the 1930s and were firmed decisively in the second post-war, creating memorable experiences and contributions, including in the field of popular housing and of vertical typologies. From the modern model of habitation, seen as “machine of living”, the article discusses Oscar Niemeyer’s experience in the design of Edificio Copan, revealing the universal meaning of his architecture and reinforcing the importance of the experiences of the Modern Movement for the process of verticalization of cities in the varied and ample panorama of Brazilian architectonical production.
