Curitiba of vertical boards and joint covers: traditional wooden houses in the first half of the 20th century

Abstract

The architectural pattern of vertical boards and wooden joint covers spread across the landscape of Curitiba in the first half of the 20th century. In the last two decades of the 19th century, the rise of sawmills, along with the predatory exploitation of noble species such as Araucaria angustifolia, promoted the standardization of board cutting, which became a popular material due to its low cost. In addition to economic factors, the syncretism between construction techniques materialized from the encounter between local knowledge and contributions brought by immigrants from various ethnicities, resulting in colorful, verandah houses with ornamental woodwork (lambrequins). However, despite the popularity of these buildings, the Code of Postures of 1919, a legislative instrument that defined construction and land use regulations in the city at the beginning of the 20th century, contributed to the production of a landscape shaped by parameters of segregation, in which wooden houses were part of an exclusionary context for symbolizing backwardness due to the construction material.