Author Description

Parque Ibirapuera was the first metropolitan park in São Paulo. It was conceived as a modern space, destined to offer leisure and culture to the population. The park was projected to be part of São Paulo's 4th Centenary celebrations, but its story involves oppositions that have been omitted in further debate. This work displaces the usual focus on the commemorative axle, in order to highlight the conflicts involved in the creation of the park – mainly related to its program. By the time of Ibirapuera's implantation, in the 50's, the construction of its pavilions was widely questioned by a group of urban planners, journalists and intellectuals who wanted an exclusively green park for that area. Nevertheless, this debate has never been discussed by the large bibliography already produced about the park, even though those conflicts seems to outpoint a battlefield between the social groups that acted in the decisions of the park's configuration.