The typological making of retail streets. Santa Ifigenia Street in Sao Paulo: origin 1850 - 1931

摘要

This article reconstructs the building transformations of Santa Ifigenia Street, Sao Paulo, to determine the formative process of a retail street. The work establishes the sequence of incremental changes using official building files between 1850 and 1931. The results reveal that retail specialization derives from the adaptation of mostly residential to retail uses, where the transformative process requires long periods of several decades to occur and it is mainly self-organized. Planning regulations must take into account these considerations for a proper management of retail areas.