The historiography of modern architecture on the boundaries

outlines of the banna building

Abstract

The Banna Building (c.1960), a project by engineerarchitect
Alcyr Meira, stands out in the construction scenery of Belém, a city in the state of Pará, Brazil, for
combining attributes such as nine apartments per floor, a commercial ground floor, rationalized geometry, and typical solutions of Modern Architecture. It also distinguishes itself for being a “Boundary-Object”, which shifts between different definitions
in relation to its socioeconomic, locational, and temporal characteristics, amongst others. Therefore, a historiographic investigation of the Banna Building was proposed according to these boundaries, particularities,
and conditions. The first part of this investigation seeks the contexts, intentions, and assumptions underlying Banna Building’s conception and production (focusing on structuring events that circumscribed the consolidation of this building). Based on the
period that encompasses most of Belém’s Modern Architecture (1940-1980), the second part of the
investigation raises discussions about periodization. For this, Combined Strategy, a methodology that associates qualitative research (bibliographical survey
on architectural culture and historiography of Modern
Architecture in the Amazon) and historical research was used. This multiple reading of the same architectural object contributes to give prominence to the Banna
Building, and thus, to highlight the multiple meanings of the historiographical web of Modern Architecture in Amazonian cities.