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Obras Oficiais

1. "March to the West" campaign

Estado Novo (1937-1945) of Getúlio Vargas.

--sought to push development from the coastal cities of Brazil, notably São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, to the interior --connect the south to Belém and the Amazonian region via the interior --fill the "demographic vacuum" of the interior --Mato Grosso was an ideal central point between the two, with Cuiabá being the largest city at that point; Cuiabá is (nominally) center point of South America --the city needed an infrastructure to carry out the March to the West

Vargas saw "A true sense of Brazilianess is to the west." (A verdadeiro sentido de brasilidade é o rumo ao oeste." (Castor)

2. Coimbra Bueno e Cia. Ltda.

Contracted to carry out Vargas government works of all kinds.

--Headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, at the time the capital of Brazil --Had experience with the masterplan for Goiás (1934) --Had experience with working in the interior of Brazil, far from major urban resources

3. Vargas architecture: "government-sanctioned" architecture

Government-funded works abandoned French-inspired Neoclassical and Eclectic architecture dominant in 19th and early 20th century Brazil

Vargas: --Art Deco --Neo-classical --Carioca-style modernism

"less punctilious, often hybrid, art deco and neo-classicial" (Araujo)

Art Deco "assumed a special role in the process of architectural renovation" of Cuiabá. (Araujo)

4. Cuiabá "obras oficias": Júlio Muller

Júlio Muller, a native of Cuiabá, was an associate of Getúlio Vargas and became interventor of Mato Grosso. Júlio Muller brother, Filinto, was Vargas' head of police. Both brother were known Integralists, a fascist movement in Brazil; they may have accepted money from Nazi Germany to support Integralist activities. Filinto is noted for his brutal enforcement of the Vargas dictatorship; he is known in one case to have used Cuiabá, in the distant interior, for police purposes. Júlio's record in Cuiabá is mixed: he built much-needed infrastructure in the city, but few of his workers survived the cruel treatment on his farm outside Cuiabá. (Castor)

5. Cuiabá "obras oficias": Cássio Veiga de Sá

Represented Coimbra Bueno e Cia. Ltda. in Mato Grosso.

--Native of Rio de Janeiro, and only 27 years old at the time of his appointment in Cuiabá --Graduate of Universidade Politécnica do Rio de Janeiro --Arrived in Cuiabá in November, 1937 (Castor)

He resettled in Cuiabá and became part of the elite of the city. He also wrote a memoir of the architectural and engineering works of the period of "obras oficias" in Cuiabá. Cássio Veiga de Sá provides details on the chronology, building materials, labor and costs of the project; (Castor) he leaves us with unusually detailed information on the construction of early modernist works in Brazil.

6. Cuiabá "obras oficias": construction materials

Only small production of building materials, mainly bricks

-"obras oficias": building materials were either produced in Cuiabá after the development of new works (bricks) --shipped over long distances, primarily from São Paulo. There was no direct rail, water, or road route between São Paulo and Cuiabá; it took three months to move materials between the two cities. Materials were sent via two railroads from São Paulo, then by inland water routes beyond the research of rail transportation. The inland water routes of the interior also lacked warehouses, creating more difficulty in moving materials to the interior. (Castor)

Wood was "shipped dried and sawn from sawmills in São Paulo". Wood, however, was abundant in Cuiabá in the period, but there were no sawmills of the scale needed for the Official Works. (Castor)

7. Cuiabá "obras oficias": location & individual works

Obras oficias inserted into the existing urban landscape of Cuiabá, from the colonial period, 19th century, and early 20th century. Churches and houses of adobe, mud (taipa); Neoclassical buildings of brick.

Obras oficias breaks with existing buildings by: 1. "straight, abstract, and dynamic lines" 2. reinforced concrete 3. flat, slab roof, in contrast to tiled roofs of existing buildings

Sede do DCT: A milstone in the history of architectural modernization in Mato Grosso and the Center-West of the country. (Um marco na história de modernização arquitetônica de Mato Grosso e do Centro-Oeste do país.), considered "ground zero" of Vargas-era Art Deco works in Cuiabá. (Araujo)