Seaside Coconut Trees

Skyscrapers and Northeastern Modes of Dwelling in the Verticalization of the City of João Pessoa (1950-1970)

Abstract

This article examines the process of verticalization in the city of João Pessoa between the 1950s and 1970s, investigating the tensions between modernity and tradition, progress and local identity, through the discourses mobilized in the construction of distinct imaginaries. On the one hand, modernity was championed and materialized in the figure of the skyscraper; on the other, the defense of ways of life and spatial occupation grounded in the notion of a Northeastern mode of dwelling, regarded as a more authentic and regionally embedded cultural expression. By delineating a key period of urban expansion in the capital of Paraíba, these decades witnessed verticalization and the single-family house embodying two divergent conceptions of urban growth, two models of territorial occupation—each pointing to distinct dwelling practices, either consonant with or opposed to the suggestions of local climate and culture. Reflecting the broader tensions that informed debates on verticalization in Brazil since the 1920s, this episode in the urban history of João Pessoa is distinguished by the subjection of verticalization and its imaginaries to cultural determinants that expanded the critical discourse surrounding skyscrapers and their local relevance, considered beyond economic, hygienic, or moral dimensions.