New cities of paper: from intention to non-realization

Abstract

When rescuing cities that never left the paper, they never went beyond risks and sketches – new cities, projected, but not materialized -, this article seeks to reveal in the proposed arrangement unlikely readings, in addition to the attributes and stories that characterize them. There are three cities idealized by renowned architects and linked here according to their chronological emergence in Time: Marina, an agricultural-industrial city planned in 1956 by Oscar Niemeyer; São Bento da Lagoa, a seaside resort designed in 1975 by Maria Elisa Costa and Lucio Costa; and Cidade do Tietê, a river port city imagined in 1980 by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. But what do these cities have in common? Are they just ideas launched? Why didn't they avenge? Using the “think” and “do” method by atlas, intentionally approaching them, we tried to reflect on the importance of utopia and collective ideas in the conception of a city. We sought to understand the imaginary universe of each case, exploring the intentions, imperfections and marks left by non-materialized cities. These are paper cities that help us understand society in each period; they are cities on paper whose features reveal their real identity and the true motivations for their creation and rejection.