Forei̇gn Professi̇onals and Moderni̇zati̇on of Archi̇tecture and Urbani̇sm: Adalberto Szi̇lard İn Ri̇o De Janei̇ro, Brazi̇l

This article analyzes the contributions of the Hungarian engineer and architect Adalberto Szilard to the modernization of architecture and urbanism in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the period of 30 years, from the 1920s to the 1950s. Szilard emigrated to Brazil in 1926 and settled down in Rio de Janeiro. His constant movement between the fields of architecture and urbanism, from architectural design to urban planning theory, illustrates the deep relation between architecture and the city. His theoretical and practical work is to a large extent, registered in articles published in journals, such as, “Revista Municipal de Engenharia”, and “Revista Arquitetura e Urbanismo”. Those papers show his criticism and his proposals related to urban matters, and his concerns the city traffic, the protection of the hills and the preservation of historic parts of the cities. Szilard was engaged in a long debate with the modern movement and the ideas of Le Corbusier, that changed from the support to the rejection of those ideas. This discussion included issues, such as, the processes of centralization and decentralization. In the article "À margem das Conferências de Le Corbusier” [Nearby the lectures of Le Corbusier] in 1936, he produced one of the earliest records of modern urbanism in our country, related to the opening of Presidente Vargas Avenue, subscribing to the new ideas. Nevertheless, in 1950, in the book "Urbanismo no Rio de Janeiro” [Urbanism in Rio de Janeiro], he reviewed his previous position by recognizing the inability of the modern movement to cope with the existing cities. From the late 1940s, he supported establishing of a City Planning program at the University of Brazil, becoming one of its first faculty members..