Edificio Edlú (São Paulo, 1944). Edlú Building
Edificio Edlú, planta baja (1944). Edlú building, ground floor.
IN 1934, JACQUES EMÍLE PILON (Le Havre, 1905, Sao Paulo, 1962) started his work in Rio de Janeiro collaborating with the Prentice & Floderer studio supervising the construction of the Sulacap building, in the center of Sao Paulo. When he finally settled in the city, he founded PILMAT 2 (Pilon & Matarazzo Ltda) with Francisco Matarazzo, which ran until 1940, and later formed two companies: Jacques Pilon Engineer Architect, responsible for the projects, and Jacques Pilon Architecture and Construction, responsible for construction, active until 1959. In that year he founded Jacques Pilon S/A - Construction, Real Estate, Commercial and Management Company. Proof of the presence of foreign architects and the frequent exchange between offices are the collaborations of the Jacques Pilon studio with figures such as Joseph Alexius Swoboda, Walk Cristopher, Herbert Duschenes, Ivan Gilberto Castaldi, Franz Heep, Gian Carlo Gasperini, Jerônimo Bonilha, among others. During the 1930s 3 , Pilon consolidated his position in the field of construction of office buildings in downtown Sao Paulo, both in the Old Center, the original city core, and in its expansion, where the following works stand out: Sulacap Building (1933), San Manuel Building (1937), Anhumas Building (1938), Francisco Coutinho Building (1938), Henrique de Toledo Lara Building (1938), Caetano Cardamone Building (1938), Canada Building (1938), Rocha Camargo Edificio (1939), Jaragua Building (1939) and Martinho Building (1939, demolished). The next decade is the most prolific, with the following buildings: Ernesto Ramos (1940), Barão de Itapetininga (1941), Irradiação (1941), Mauá (1942), Wallace Murray Simonse (1942), Schwery (1942), Santa Nazareth ( 1943), Stella (1944), Edlu (1944), Guilherme Guinle / Diários Associados (1944), Acádia (1944), Alzira and Benjamin Jafet (1944), Banco Noroeste (1944), XV de Novembro (1945), Bahije Taufic Camasmine (1947), Chrysler-Merco (1948) and the Industrial Bank of Sao Paulo (1949). In the 50s 4 , the Pilon studio builds the following: Brazil Cia de Seguros (1952), João Mendes (1955), Sociedade Carbon Lorena (1953), Barão de Iguape (1955) and Santa Monica II (1957).
The relevant contributions of European architects Jacques Pilon, Franz Heep, Lucjan Korngold and Giancarlo Palanti in office building projects in the city of Sao Paulo between 1930 and 1960, as well as the working relationships between them 1 , occurred in complex times for foreign professionals residing in Brazil, when they could only practice as partners or associated with local architecture studios, but never independently. “In addition to the limitations imposed by professional legislation, the lives of these foreign architects became even more difficult after the enactment of the Federal Constitution of 1937, during the New State, in which differences between the rights and individual guarantees of Brazilians and foreigners are established, limiting the right to free exercise of the profession, prohibiting access to public office and the right to ownership, shareholding or directing media companies. Inspired by the Carta del Laboro in force in Fascist Italy, the new Constitution also imposed that only those who had been granted a permanent visa could exercise professional activities under the established limits for foreigners of the same nationality in the country. “ (Silva, 2010, p. 58). We will focus on the local offices that played an important role in terms of receiving foreign architects in this context: Francisco Matarazzo Neto had Jacques Pilon, Lucjan Korngold and Herbert Duschenes as collaborators; Henrique E. Mindlin hosted Franz Heep, Giancarlo Palanti; and later, Jacques Pilon, who worked with Franz Heep, Herbert Duschenes and Gian Carlo Gasperini, among others. Faced with the difficulty of developing an independent career, the studios based in Sao Paulo had the opportunity to incorporate the experience of these architects. Thus, the increasing and intense vertical growth of the Sao Paulo city center was defined by an imported modern model, especially in the production of office space, a priority program for the real estate market in the region in those years.
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