Retorno aos Mucambos do Nordeste: sobre a obra pioneira de Gilberto Freyre

Abstract

The book Mucambos do Nordeste, by Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987), is today an illustrious unknown. The work appeared as the first issue of the Publications of the newly created SPHAN – National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service, in 1936, and was an undeniable pioneer in the theme of vernacular architecture. It is an irregular and unsystematic booklet, which we believe to be a small piece in a vast puzzle, the whole of Freyre's work, which gives meaning to the parts of the book, and gives it due depth, allowing us to understand its sections, the meaning of the terms, and the importance of their conclusions. The “mucambos” would have aesthetic and ecological merits, in more than one sense of the term, and would be an efficient adaptation to the tropical environment: lusotropical, to use Gilberto Freyre's terminology. And, above all, as a cultural synthesis, mixing Portuguese, indigenous and African elements.