A tropical enterprise: British planning ideas in a private settlement in Brazil

Abstract

The northern region of Paraná State, Brazil, was colonized by an English company during the second quarter of the twentieth century. British private investment was attracted to this little‐explored region following the advance into the west of Brazil and the expansion of coffee‐growing areas. As a fundamental part of this overseas land speculation enterprise, the whole territory was parcelled into small rural plots, a cluster of regularly spaced towns was founded and a railway line was built; only then immigrants were settled. Thus, systematic colonization, deliberate urbanization and town and country planning in advance of territory occupation can be seen. However, no formal evidence of this comprehensive colonization scheme has been found, apart from a few maps, some company documents, a large number of photographs and some scattered information. Hence, drawing upon the history of planning, cultural studies, imperialism/colonialism, British colonial towns and the Garden City Movement, this paper argues that certain British planning ideas and practices were applied in this area, more specifically those related to the garden city concepts, which have contributed to the construction of a particular landscape.