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Historical Archaeology & Anthropological Sciences

Research Article Volume 3 Issue 3

Modernity, patrimony policies: the 'Cultural Corridor' in Rio de Janeiro

Nara Maria Carlos de Santana

Federal Center of Technological Education Celso Suckow da Fonseca, Brazil

Correspondence: Nara Maria Carlos de Santana, Federal Center of Technological Education Celso Suckow da Fonseca, Brazil

Received: December 08, 2018 | Published: June 6, 2018

Citation: Santana NMC. Modernity, patrimony policies: the ‘Cultural Corridor’ in Rio de Janeiro. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):449-454. DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00117

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Abstract

This article briefly discusses the Brazilian national policies for the National Patrimony, privileging the analysis of the last two decades of the twentieth century. For that, the concepts contemplated in the discussion were those of modernity and identity and the emphasis of the research falls on the "cultural corridor" of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The text makes a passage through the history and institutionalization of the national projects for the Patrimony, its bond with the construction of a National State and the characteristics of the periods. Again we emphasize that the focus falls on the final years of the twentieth century. As a research methodology, we will use the analysis of secondary sources and primary sources, namely literature review and heritage documents.

Keywords: cultural heritage, cultural corridor, patrimony policies, rio de janeiro

Introduction

The discussion about national policies for Cultural Heritage-formerly Historic-is formulated from the beginning, guided by the paradigms of the modern nation and its principle of modernity. The brief discussion on patrimony policies in the last two decades of the twentieth century and its relation to the conceptions of modernity, memory and identity presented here, composes an outline of a reflection that must be relativized given the dimension of this space. For this reason, we will emphasize the discussion about the "cultural corridor" in Rio as a simple fragment of the investigation as a whole analyzed in the light of qualitative research with secondary sources. In Brazil, until the middle of the 70's the preservation policy was restricted to the monumental buildings and historic gardens made by IPHAN - Institute of National Historic and Artistic Heritage. The most active participation of society in preservation processes would happen, not by chance, in the decline of the military regime in the late 1970s as a consequence of urban social movements. One of the results of such actions was the revaluation of the center of the city of Rio de Janeiro, which in the early 1980s was called the "Cultural Corridor Project". By this project, an area of ​​the urban center of the city was defined as of interest for the preservation. At the moment, the main projects developed were supported by the Inter-American Development Bank - IDB and the Ministry of Culture in some cases with local institutions, prefectures, secretaries, etc.

In the 1990s, investments began to recover the built heritage and the redevelopment of the road system in areas of historical and cultural value.1 It is worth noting that the logic of this period has very little to do with the question of national identity from the 1930s to the 1970s. In the early 1930s, national identity was being politically effective and the heritage preservation policy was being implemented as part of a national policy. In view of this we can understand that: The representations of a political culture are not exempt from the interests of the groups that constructed it, we can verify that the historical patrimony, understood as a symbolic representation of a certain mentality, has an intense connection with the political field. It can either be an instrument of domination of the social field, or it can be an object representation of a particular ideology and or political culture.1 But even before the 1930s and the implementation of an effective heritage preservation policy, the country witnessed a real and already institutional concern in this regard, also within the same nationalist spirit.2,3 In the decade of 10 of the twentieth century, the concern with the destruction and evasion of national works of art to the outside caused that diverse sectors of the society began to worry about the preservation of the artistic and architectural assets national. According to Fernandes,4 "Between the years of 1917 and 1925, legislative proposals were presented within the Chamber of Deputies, with the objective of creating a body to protect the National Historical Heritage."

Among the original initiatives, that of Wanderley Pinho, a member of the Historical and Geographical Institute of Bahia, that despite not providing for legal protection of the State, was responsible for the preservation of 11 members of the Bahian Institute itself. Another initiative worth mentioning was that of Professor Alberto Childe, who was a conservative of Classical antiques at the National Museum of Fine Arts and at the request of Bruno Lobo, president of the Brazilian Society of Fine Arts, created a bill to protect the Patrimony History of the Country, with emphasis on archaeological goods. However, the great turning point in the policies for the preservation of Historical Patrimony was in 1923, with the link to the Federal Power and the creation of the Provinces of Historical Monuments of the United States of Brazil, whose project by Luis Cedro, representative of Pernambuco was presented to the Chamber of Deputies.2 Because they possess a remarkable collection of colonial cultural goods, Bahia and Pernambuco are the pioneer states in the creation of regional organs of protection to the local Historical Patrimony. In 1927, the "State Inspection of National Monuments" was created in Bahia, the same occurring in Pernambuco the following year.

1Some of the main projects developed included the Inter-American Development Bank - IDB and the Ministry of Culture partnership. In some cases with local institutions, city halls, secretaries, etc. Just to name a project: The SA'S Project in the area of the road corridor formed by the streets Estácio de Sá, Salvador de Sá and Mem de Sá, at the immediate border of the City Center. This project provides for the improvement and renovation of public areas, with the opening of new roads, drainage works, paving and lighting of streets, improvement of sidewalks and parking lots, creation of squares and recreation areas, planting of trees and installation of urban furniture. At this stage, the BNDES started to allocate resources through the culture incentive law.

2The Provincials' action was subject to restrictions imposed by the 1891 Constitution and the Civil Code, which ensured the principle of the right to property, together with the absence of provisions for sanctions against patrimony, which meant that the Provinces had limited action in their function of protection of assets.

The 1930s are marked by the national policy initiated with Getúlio Vargas, whose centralizing bias leads national politics to an authoritarian regime. The construction of a National State by Vargas privileges the creation of a patrimony policy, which is concerned with highlighting "places of memory", in which the great heroic deeds of our past stand out, within the logic of the national project, as we shall see below. Some initial laws promote the valorization of the baroque art of Minas Gerais, with decree nº 22.928, of July 12, 1933, that elevates Ouro Preto to National Monument. In 1934, another degree nº 24.3375 begins "the organization of a service of protection to the historical monuments of the country and to the traditional Brazilian works".4 The "National Monuments Inspectorate", headed by the then director of the National Historical Museum, Gustavo Barroso, had only one architect, Epaminondas Vieira Macedo and carried out few conservation works in the city of Ouro Preto. He had a short history, since his functions were later assumed by SPHAN.

Before the existence of the Patrimony Department, the new Republican Constitution of 1934 already provided for the protection of the National Historical and Artistic Patrimony, in its art. 148: "It is the duty of the Union, the States and the Municipalities to promote and encourage the development of the sciences, arts, letters and culture in general, protect the objects of historical interest and the artistic patrimony of the country, as well as provide assistance to the worker intellectual". It was the initiative of the Minister Gustavo Capanema, who in 1936 delegated to the intellectual and writer Mario de Andrade the task of elaborating the bill for preservation of the patrimony. From Decree-Law no. 25, dated November 30, 1937, the text of a modernist matrix, prepared together with the State, creates new fields for the construction of national identity with characteristics of modernity. With this decree-law, the then president Getúlio Vargas created a policy for the National Historic and Artistic Patrimony, in which he proposed to organize and protect the movable and immovable property existing in the country. In this same month and year, the Estado Novo began and with it a proposal of construction of the National State. The aim of the Estado Novo project was to make a modern nation feasible through industrialization and access to citizenship through work. Among other aspects that characterize this period are the valorization of the leader, the attack on the so-called "alien ideologies", the concern with the fixation of language and culture and the participation of intellectuals, especially those of the Week of 1922.

Mário de Andrade, one of the intellectuals responsible for heritage legislation, emphasized that this policy was aimed at "building the national memory in which they appear in the content, heterogeneity and cultural complexity inherent in the Brazilian formation." The legislation proposed by Andrade is seen by some as incompatible with the policy of the period; however, it well illustrates the need to fix a given identity. The 1930s and 1940s were circumscribed in the history of Brazil Republic as fundamental for the construction and definition of a national identity. The proposal for the construction of the National State was based on the legitimacy of the binomial "nation and people", as a way to end the decentralization and to concretize a national project through a dictatorship. We cannot fail to reject the fact that the "abrasileiramento" of the social components gave way to another fundamental element in the basis of the regime's support and which had been catalyzed as a symbol of the national citizen: the worker. With regard to culture, the Estado Novo dictatorship could not leave aside this fundamental element in the construction of the nation, giving the regime the responsibility for it.

The Brazilian interpretation of liberal failure recognized in itself the task of taking the Brazilian people out of extreme poverty and necessity by changing the conception that work was only a solution to poverty through its valorization in the country. Having been abandoned - according to the idealizers of the regime - in the First Republic, the resolution of the social question became the main goal of the national Getulista project. One of the tools for this solution was the creation of labor law, which recognized the worker as the main figure of the national life. The concern with the Brazilian worker and the creation of labor law inaugurated a new concept of democracy. Social democracy was conceived as a new "statute of citizenship" for the Brazilian man, hence the expression "new man" who would be born as a result of the social project of the Estado Novo. In order to understand it better, I return to the statement of Pécaut for which teaching functioned as an instrument of the State to "create the mentality" of this new man. Thus, the proposal of social democracy was to transform work into a central activity in the life of man and not simply a means of earning a living as in the First Republic. By this proposal the Brazilian man became a citizen, identified by his productive work. What defined citizenship was not the possession of civil and legal rights, but the possession of social rights conferred by access and regulation of work made possible by labor legislation and training of the skilled worker made possible by the proposed educational model. The preservation of memory and the past, the preservation of culture, would also pass through the scrutiny of the state in the name of this "new man."

In the scope of access to education is culture, it is noteworthy that the bill drafted in 1936, by the writer Mario de Andrade at the request of the Minister of Education Gustavo Capanema, defined the patrimony as: “all works of pure or applied art, popular or erudite, national or foreign, belonging to the public authorities and to social organizations and national individuals, to foreign individuals residing in Brazil”.5 Andrade's policy is marked by a dubious characteristic, on the one hand the idea of renewal inspired by modernization, on the other hand, by permanence, concerned with the recovery of traditions. According to Cavalcanti:5 The ministerial initiative to call Mário de Andrade, one of the most important modern writers, to write the program of the institution of wealth to be created lies in the conviction that the main task of the MES, the formation of the future mentality of the Brazilian man, would not be solidly based if what was important in the past was not also established in the present.3 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of the period: the idea of ​​the new Brazilian man. Who would this new man be? In the proposal of the national project the new Brazilian man would be a citizen identified for his productive work, in the understanding of what was called Social Democracy. the past was not also established in the present.4 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th According to the Ministry of Education and Health, the concern with education went beyond the traditional school and with it the ministry prepared, according to Capanema "to prepare, to compose and to fondle the man of Brazil. He is truly the Ministry of Man." the past was not also established in the present.5 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th

3The MES is the Ministry of Education and Health.

4Among other proposals, in Social Democracy a new "statute" of citizenship for the Brazilian man was conceived. The proposal was to make work a central activity in the life of man and not simply a means of earning a living, as in the first Republic.

5Letter to Minister Gustavo Capanema to President Getúlio Vargas, 14-6-1937. Archive Gustavo Capanema, FGV / CPDOC. APUD: CAVALCANTI, 1999: 180.

According to Cavalcanti5 the Ministry had been created with the purpose of building the new Brazilian man. In view of this, the proposal of the MES was to raise the level of the lower layers in a way "to develop the high culture of the country, its art, its music, its letters", with the intention of putting into practice the homogenization of the Brazilian society, reducing the regional and racial differences and composing a nation "one" and undivided, as advocated by the National project. And the patrimony preservation policy was one of the key points of this project. The discussion of the patrimony in Brazil arose from the same intellectuals who were involved in the modernist movement, characterized by a desire for renewal, detachment from the past and the construction of a new, modern and typically Brazilian art, music and literature. Other modernists participated in the Vargas cultural policy, among them Oswald de Andrade, Manoel Bandeira, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Candido Portinari, Tarsila do Amaral and Lúcio Costa.

Later, Sphan is transformed into IPHAN and currently this body divides the task of identifying and tipping the historical, cultural and artistic heritage with states and municipalities. According to Lemos, "tipping is an attribute that is given to the cultural good chosen and separated from the others so that, in it, the guarantee of perpetuation of memory is guaranteed. the past was not also established in the present.6 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th In the late 1930s, Brazil defined the legal figure of Tumbamento, in the same decree creating Sphan. It is important to emphasize that there was more than one model to be followed by the modernists, for the custody of the patrimony. But the modernist heritage group initially followed the French preservationist model, which consists of a specific method of classifying and recording historical and architectural assets. In preparing the original SPAN project, Mário de Andrade chose to follow the Portuguese format, with the registration of cultural assets and values ​​in Tombo's books. the past was not also established in the present.7 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th There is in this choice recognition of a Brazilian-forming identity that concerns the colonization process.

Decree Law No. 25, dated November 30, 1937, organized the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service (Sphan), which defines the patrimony as being: "the set of movable and immovable property existing in the country and whose conservation is of interest public, either because of its link to memorable events in the history of Brazil, or because of its exceptional archaeological or ethnographic, bibliographic or artistic value.” This decree regulated the protection of the cultural assets of Brazil and according to the law, a listed property must be preserved and its original characteristics must be maintained by the owner of the property. With this, relations between patrimony, memory and national identity are determined. The patrimony that has in its etymological origin a series of meanings, already demonstrated from the antiquity its relation with the idea of ​​Patria. Etymologically, it can be understood as that which comes from the father, or which passes from father to son, with a neatly familiar bond, which refers to the inheritance. The ordinary man, when he seeks to give value to some object, says that it is a patrimony. However, according to Martins, the point in common between the concepts about Patrimony is that it is something of value, transmitted and with individual or collective use. However, the concept considered the most enlightening, with respect to relations with memory and identity, was that of Rodrigues, which has a relation with the national identity that it is intended to highlight. According to him: Heritage is the set of movable and immovable property existing in the country and whose conservation is of public interest, either because of its link to memorable events in Brazilian history or because of its exceptional archaeological or ethnological, bibliographic or artistic value.7−11

6The tipping of immovable property can be carried out in any of the instances of power, and in each of them obeys the legislation. Regarding the concept of tipping, it can be defined as the official recognition of a property with the patrimonial registration bodies.

7SPAN-Service of National Artistic Patrimony - an acronym originally proposed by Andrade, who became better known as Sphan, when he added the Historical category.

National Identity and Modernity: Cultural Patrimony and Memory

Like the concept of national identity, the conception of modernity results from a bibliographical analysis, in which the theoretical choices are intended to converge with the discussion of the text. Therefore, we prioritize the following authors:5, 6,12,13, as we shall see below. Among the definitions of national identity, we favor one that incorporates notions of the concept of nation. Guibernau's5 concept, for example, highlights modern individualism, resulting from the emergence of modern societies and the differentiation of the social division of labor. According to the author, "(...) a process that gave special meaning to uniqueness, is the idea that each individual has led to a particular concern for identity, reflecting the individual and collective (group) desire to be different." This analysis of identity, fruit of the doctoral thesis of this author,5 highlights the elements of the democratization of education and the recognition of culture as key points in the creation and support of identity as a national reference. The author points out that "individuals are born in cultures that determine the way in which they consider themselves in relation to others in nature." Analyzing Guibernau's conception of identity and comparing it with Hobsbawm's6 analysis of national symbols and traditions, we see that for the latter: (...) many political institutions and ideological movements and groups-including nationalism-without predecessors made it necessary to invent a historical continuity, for example, by creating an ancient past that would extrapolate the actual historical continuity be it by legend. (...) or by the invention (...). It is also obvious that entirely new symbols and accessories were created as part of movements and National States (...).

It is worth noting here that the National Identity, as it stands, is based on a presupposition of plurality and of differences and hierarchies among nations. Santos,12 affirms: The concern for identity is obviously not new. We can even say that modernity is born of it and with it. The first modern name of identity is subjectivity. The collapse of the medieval theocratic worldview brought with it the question of the authorship of the world and the individual constituted the first answer. Renaissance humanism is the first paradigmatic outgrowth of individuality as subjectivity. From the reflections of Guibernau and Hobsbawm, we see the link between the conception of subjective modernity in the nation, its symbols - or heritage - and national identity. The proposal of National State Getulista, it advocates the realization of a nation in the modern Eurocentric parameters. As stated above, the idea of modernity is already present in the implementation of the Vargas National Project, with the purpose of: The idea of modernity replaces God at the center of society with Science, leaving religious beliefs to private life. It is not enough that the technological applications of science are present to speak of modern society. It is also necessary that intellectual activity be protected from political propaganda or religious beliefs, that the impersonality of laws protects against nepotism, clientelism and corruption, that public and private administrations are not instruments of personal power, which public and private life are separated (...).13

In Brazil of the 80s, a more comprehensive conception of patrimony was presented in the Federal Constitution and that converges with the principle of modernity, in the measure in which we understand, as Boaventura de Souza Santos proposes that: The paradigm of modernity is a very broad socio-cultural project, full of contradictions and potentialities, which in its matrix strives for a balance between social regulation and social emancipation. The social trajectory of this paradigm is not linear. The absence of this linearity pointed out by Santos12 appears in the Constitution of 1988, whose paradigms are renewed. Many years after the creation of the organs responsible for protecting the Patrimony in the country, the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, in article 216, section II - DA CULTURA, would establish the following concept for Cultural Heritage: Brazilian cultural heritage includes goods of a material and immaterial nature, taken individually or together, bearers of reference to identity, action and memory of the different formative groups of Brazilian society, which include: I - forms of expression: II - The ways of creating, doing and living; III - Scientific, artistic and technological creations; IV- The works, objects documents, buildings and other spaces destined to the artistic-cultural manifestations; V- Urban complexes and sites of historical, landscape, artistic, archaeological, paleontological, ecological and scientific value.

The Cultural Patrimony incorporated throughout the 20th century, the concepts of Historical and Artistic Heritage, attending the anthropological conception of culture. At the end of the twentieth century, capitalism in Brazil meant that modernity (with a European matrix) "founded a complex process of contextualized particularisms to unconstrained universalism, a process which was designed in its multiple facets by rationalization, secularization, bureaucratization (...), according to Santos. In Brazil, at the end of the 20th century, the demands of society under the aegis of Democracy bring the social demands ahead of historical and cultural projects. Returning to the initial discussion of this work, the changes that took place in the patrimony policies throughout the twentieth century, would allow important changes in the new proposals for the preservation of the Patrimony from which the "Cultural Corridor Project" would result.

The Cultural Corridor: a brief analysis

Approved January 17, 1984, Law 506 of landscape and environmental preservation of the center of Rio de Janeiro and later revised and amplified by Law No. 1,139 of December 16, 1987, became known as the "Cultural Corridor Law."7 This law aimed at preserving and "revitalizing" defined areas in the project took into consideration the environmental elements that represented cultural, historical, architectural and traditional values ​​for the population. Among these factors, the following stand out: the fragmentation of the urban space; the collage of buildings from differents decades; differentiated heights and typologies; great concentration of goods dropped by the IPHAN - emphasizing churches of the baroque and neo-classical periods and several works of the modern movement.7 The city of Rio de Janeiro is the second largest metropolitan region in Brazil. In the colonial period, the center of Rio was considered the point of convergence of the city. In Brazil Empire, the population of the city begins its displacement towards the south zone for the neighborhoods of Glória, Catete and Botafogo.11

The municipality of Rio de Janeiro underwent several urban interventions throughout the twentieth century. It is worth remembering that the center of the city in the management of Pereira Passos was the site of urban renewal projects in which streets were demolished and widened, avenues and squares built, slums demolished, chalets prohibited, with the purpose of transforming city ​​in then-nation's capitalist postcard. The interventions did not stop there. In 1922, Carlos Sampaio, demolished Morro do Castelo, under the pretext of insalubrity, present in the proposal to embellish the city of the Agache Plan. In previous years, in the 1930s, other reforms were carried forward. Presidente Vargas Avenue was opened towards the north, promoting the demolition and alterations of several blocks and cultural assets already registered by the newly created federal legislation for the protection of cultural heritage (...) cites that 525 buildings occupied by individuals of low income were overturned for the construction of this avenue. The construction of the Perimetral avenue continued in the 1950s with the construction of the Perimetral Avenue, in fact a viaduct blocked the panoramic view of the Guanabara Bay and demolished the old Municipal Market, from 1907, near XV.11

At the end of the 20th century, regional characteristics, strongly marked by political interests, were also taken into account in the implementation of the "Cultural Corridor", given the moment of intense social mobilization, with the expressive participation of the residents' associations. The most visible motivations were:

  1. The initiative of the municipal government;
  2. The active participation of social actors:
  • The large exposure in the media and
  1. Exemption of IPTU (very high in this central area), TO and ISS. the past was not also established in the present.8 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th

The selected sites for urban redevelopment, redevelopment of streets, streets and squares, with investment in lighting of the main buildings were in the vicinity of Cinelândia, Largo da Carioca, Largo da Lapa with the stretch that stretches from Rua Uruguaiana to Tiradentes Square.7, the past was not also established in the present.9 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th This area was called area 1 and housed the Municipal Theater. Area 2 housed the XV November Square, composed of several religious and civil architectures, formed of an old house and was the area with a major advance in the revitalization and maintenance of buildings and area 3 and 4 formed by the commercial complex of the Largo do São Francisco and surroundings (SAARA). the past was not also established in the present.10 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th,14 According to Vargas,14 The existing associations in this region participated actively in the formulation of the Cultural Corridor project, attending at idea development meetings. The creation of the Sahara is linked to a movement contrary to the demolitions that would happen in the house, as it was being planned for the area an avenue project that began in Glória, passed through Rua da Lapa on high, entered through what is now Rua República of Paraguay, ripped the blocks of Largo de São Francisco, crossed Av. Presidente Vargas and would stop in São Cristóvão through an expanse of viaduct. The intervention was not due to the strong performance of the merchants association.

The Cultural Corridor project was inspired by the French model of the Secteur Sauvergardé, which decreed protection areas specifically in the Historic Center and added protected areas of the built environment - APACs. As in the French neighborhoods of Marais and the Château Rouge in Paris, or Alfama, Mouraria, Mandradoa and Bairro Alto Lisboa, traditions of multifunctional land use were developed in the old neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, such as Santa Tereza, Saúde, Estácio and Red Cross. It is worth noting the differences between the French and Rio areas. The first is occupied by mansions and mansions, while the second has a large number of houses with no exceptional value except for religious architecture. It is worth mentioning that in both cases, the preserved buildings correspond to some moment of the historical memory and constitute portraits of the popular identity. The Rio de Janeiro houses is formed by vernacular constructions, built mainly at the beginning of the 20th century, as a result of the city's urbanization and urbanization policy, with the Mayor Pereira Passos ahead, which was one of the largest urban reforms in the country chaired by President Rodrigues Alves. For this urban policy of environmental protection, it is intended to avoid the degradation and desertification of protected areas. The proposal aims to keep the young population and families in the old neighborhoods from the offer of work and socio-economic support. With a specific legislation for the area several measures were taken to favor regional diversity, increase the supply of housing properties, especially in areas of the Red Cross and surrounding areas. The area initially benefited by the Cultural Corridor project was also added the APACs (Areas of Preservation of the Cultural Environment). the past was not also established in the present.11 Then we have another chapter of the nationalist project of th Lima,7 emphasizes that: The example of the Parisian districts of the Marais and the Château Rouge was to protect the particular activities of the Red Cross and its surrounding areas, such as the encouragement of the manufacture and recovery of furniture, the handicraft schools linked to the restoration, the manufacture of lamps and elements of acrylic, to the stores of resale of used books, to the antiques, currently consecrated uses in the adjacencies of the Street of the Lavradio.

The APACs proposal only became possible, from the 90s, when the concept of Cultural Heritage extends to Environmental Patrimony and includes the proposal of preservation and conservation of real estate patrimony, physical-territorial patrimony. The impacts of urban and human environment, in order to compare the excessive practice of capitalist territorial exploitations among such practices to use equity simply as a commercial exchange value7 The difference between the preservationist model of the "Cultural Corridor" for the previous models is that these privileged the cons−ervation of isolated parts of the urban real estate and not its whole. In this sense, authors such as Rabah10 & Sampaio,11 considered this project as a historical landmark for the policies of preservation of historical heritage, highlighting the mobility of the concept of heritage, but highlighting its historical function.

8Lima (2007, p. 82) states that "these same facts can not induce rehabilitation in other significant and historical areas of the city, which have been the object of laws protecting the cultural environment, since these are devalued areas of the city and, sometimes decadent, have a very low IPTU, with insufficient value for the recovery of real estate.

9According to LIMA (2007, p. 83), "the following stages were progressively reaching the entire central area, even in the non-preserved stretches. (...) the importance of works that between 1993 and 1996, reached values close to $ 100,000,000.00 (one hundred million dollars).

10The region where SAARA is located, more precisely the Rua da Alfândega and its surroundings, was the shipping area for the ships that arrived at the port and where the customs, inspection and inspection of the merchandise were carried out. Hence the name street of the Customs, received in 1716 after several other denominations. As it was very close to the port, this place also served as shelter to the numerous Syrian, Lebanese, Jews, Greeks, Turks, Spaniards, Portuguese and Argentine immigrants who arrived in Brazil in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of them, escaped from the first world war, discovered in Brazil a possibility of future. http://www.comprenasaara.com.br/institucional/quem-so we access on 06/13/2011.

11Vargas (2010, p.22) explains that as of 1992, the Decennial Master Plan (Supplementary Law 16/1992) established the foundations for APACs, making it an important instrument for the protection of the built environment.

A historic city is itself a monument, both for its topographical structure and its landscape, for the character of its roads, as well as for all its larger and smaller buildings; so, as in the case of a particular monument, it is necessary to apply to them the same protection laws and the same criteria of restoration, clearing, recovery and innovation.7 The city preserves historical elements that preserved record the memory of its inhabitants and reflect in an exceptional way its life and history. Mário de Andrade, one of the intellectuals responsible for heritage legislation, emphasized that the policy of patrimony protection aimed at "building the national memory in which they appear in the content, heterogeneity and cultural complexity inherent in the Brazilian formation." The legislation proposed by Andrade is seen by some as incompatible with the policy of the period; however, it well illustrates the need to fix a given identity.

One can understand the memory described by Andrade, as one that takes into account the ethnic formation, its symbols represented by both real estate and culture. For Halbwachs, "collective memory presents itself as tradition." In the case of the project discussed here, urban reform proposes to preserve elements of material heritage, which carry within them a representation of the history of the inhabitants of that region. This region, which represents a specific moment of the Rio de Janeiro urban space, reveals the specificities of the inhabitants of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Because they are constituted as historical districts, beginning and middle of the colonization and expansion of the city, we agree with the story that affirms: GCArgan, speaking of historic neighborhoods and their protection, argues that if we ascribe a value and if we continue to do so, it is because this neighborhood still has a function, even if it is no longer its original function and its value does not represent more than an aesthetic value and testimony of history.

Conclusion

There is still a lot to talk about cultural heritage and its social significance. Studying national identity from heritage, I realized that there is a preponderance of architecture in this field of studies. With regard to recent and specific projects such as the "Cultural Corridor" intellectual production focuses on architecture and urban planning, which makes the theme even more interesting. Therefore, this paper presents a rather initial conclusion. We have not included here the analyzes of the history of 20th century heritage policies that would be important in this discussion, since the twentieth century was the scene of several international meetings for the definition of patrimony policies. To cite one of these meetings, the II International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historical Monuments, held in Venice from May 25-31, 1964, publishes the so-called Venice Charter, which contains important definitions on the conservation and restoration of monuments and sites that precede and direct the directions outlined in the project here referred to, "Cultural Corridor". In this letter, in article 1, it is stated that "the notion of a historical monument comprises isolated architectural creation, as well as the urban or rural site that bears witness to a particular civilization." Since cultural identities are preserved in the form of cultural patrimony, it is important to hope that this preservation will not be contaminated by other interests and that "the inflation of the historical-architectural patrimony begun in the 1960s that comes from another logic", that of mass culture, is not perpetuated in the preservation of our historical center. Today, within the concept of subjectivity that the project of modernity proposes, but beyond it, within a value scale derived from this same modernity, we hope that the popular participation continues to be expanded. Finally, we cannot ignore the fact that we wrote this year 2014. At this very moment, the perimeter and its legacy of the 1950s, has been demolished in the name of a new subjectivity.

Acknowledgements

None.

Conflict of interest

Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

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