Urban Engineering: Concepts and Challenges

2. Urban engineering in São Paulo
2.1 Background
The first topographical survey of the city of São Paulo was completed in 1792. According to
Toledo (1983) the survey was in effect the first ‘master plan’ for the city. In addition to being
a straightforward survey it also provided certain guidelines as to how the city should deal
with its future expansion from small village to larger urban center.
The above survey was carried out by Portuguese military engineers, cartographers and
astronomers belonging to the Royal Corps of Engineers, who were also engaged in
overseeing a variety of public works such as the building of hospitals, the laying down of
water facilities and paved streets, as well as constructing barracks and other military-type
installations.
It is perhaps worth recalling that, prior to the late 18th century, so-called public works such
as the construction of bridges and the paving of roads and streets tended to be undertaken
by ordinary people using makeshift building techniques and perishable materials such as
mud reinforced with straw (adobe). The Portuguese military engineers introduced a series
of new techniques, employing more durable materials such as stone and lime (infinitely
more suited to large-scale works).
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Methods and Techniques in Urban Engineering
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Military-trained engineers played an important role in the development of the city of São
Paulo and its hinterland, moving on from mapping and surveying the then "province" to
undertaking topographical surveys of the expanding urban area, designing roads and
railways and being closely involved in the construction of bridges, fortifications and public
buildings in general (Simões Jr., 1990).
The growing importance of these activities, which expanded in tandem with the population
upsurge in the interior of the state of São Paulo as a result of the coffee boom, pointed to an
urgent need to train more engineers. The latter began to be referred to, around this time, as
"civil engineers" given that the majority of the public works required were increasingly of a
non-military nature.
The 
Escola Politécnica
of São Paulo was established in 1893. This ran courses in civil,
industrial and agricultural engineering as well as a supplementary course in mechanics.
One year after its establishment the 
Escola
was also able to offer courses in architecture and
was entitled to award formal qualifications in accountancy, surveying and machinery
operation for students who managed to complete only part of its engineering courses
(Santos, 1985).
The first School of Engineering in Brazil to provide exclusively a course in civil engineering
was the 
Escola Politécnica
of Rio de Janeiro, established in 1874. The 
Escola
originated in
1792 with the creation of the Royal Academy of Artillery, Fortifications and Design in Rio de
Janeiro, which later (in 1810) became known as the Royal Military Academy. The Academy
was in the event staffed by the director and most of the members of the teaching corpus
who had previously worked at the Portuguese Royal Naval Academy, having arrived in
Brazil with the exiled Portuguese King João VI in 1808 (Pardal,1985). The second School to
be established was the Ouro Preto School of Mines (in 1876) which instituted a course on
mining and metallurgical engineering.
Other schools soon followed: the Pernambuco Engineering School (1895), the Mackenzie
Engineering Schools in São Paulo (1896), the Porto Alegre Engineering School (1896), the
Escola Politécnica
of Bahia (1897), the Belo Horizonte Free School of Engineering (1911), the
Paraná Engineering School (1912), the 
Politécnica
of Recife (1912), the Itajubá Electrical
Engineering and Technical School (1913), the Juiz de Fora Engineering School (1914), the
Military Engineering School in Rio de Janeiro (1928) and, finally, the Pará Engineering
School in 1931 (Telles, 1993).
The above schools aimed to train civil engineers to work in the burgeoning cities, where
they would be responsible for topographical surveys, all types and sizes of public and
private buildings, road systems, canals, water and sewage networks, as well as for the
conservation, planning and budgetary details involved in the public works that were an
inevitable product of the growth of Brazil's urban areas.