Centro Cultural “Leny de Oliveira Zurita” - Brazil

On December 21, 2017, the Railway Heritage World Blog went to Araras/SP, where we visited the Cutural Center "Leny de Oliveira Zurita". This building was a railway station, which suffered a restoration based on careful interventions to conserve its original feature.

History

Nestlé and Araras' railway station. Source: https://www.nestle.com.br/a-nestle/historia (2017)

The railway station was inaugurated in 1877, while the steam engine was being developed in São Paulo State, making use of a technology imported from England and U.S.A. As usual, the railway was following the leading economy of the country, the coffee, which took until Araras region some progress. Nestlé established its head office in the city in 1921; it used the railway to transport oil. This company still works, and the city continues to fell the smell of coffee in the air. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about the use of the train; during the 50’s when the roads began to replace the railways in Brazil, the railway system started to collapse; Araras received its last passangers' train in 1977.

The railway complex (2004). Source: https://concursosdeprojeto.org/2009/10/28/centro-cultural-de-araras-sao-paulo/ (2017)

The first station restoration was made by Nestlé in 1991, due to its location. The company had a property on both sides of an avenue, thus, each time they should take their products from one building to the other, they were obliged to follow the transportation policy. As a kind of agreement between the private and the public sectors, the company closed the avenue and rebuilt the station. Anyway, their work suffered a lot with the passing time.

Until that moment the complex was a property of FEPASA. Only in 2000 the municipal government got the rights of the station property and could give it the conservation that the building deserved. For that, in 2004 the Associação de Cultura e Artes de Araras, promoted a concourse in partnership with IAB/SP (Brazilian Institution of Architects, Fundação Bienal São Paulo and Nestlé to revitalize the station and turn it into a cultural center. Another initiative that helped the infrastructure preservation was the Roanet Law, which encourages business investors to put money in cultural programs, in return some taxes are adjusted; The restoration finished in 2009 financed by Nestlé, Chocolates Garoto S.A. and BV Financeira S.A. Crédito, Financiamento e Investimento. Currently, the building is used by all the population.

The Building

The Railway Station of Araras is one of the few stations rebuild along the Companhia Paulista de Estrada de Ferro railway lines, one of the most important railways company of São Paulo State. Its first building, dated from 1877, was made by wood. The brick construction substituted the old building in 1882. Until 1924 the station suffered some transformations and expansions. The station complex restoration was based on the use of new materials, to replace those that could not be restored, as a way to distinguish the old from the new.

Araras’ station is an example of a traditional railway station architecture in Brazil; its complex has a boarding platform, warehouses and the stationmaster's house; its structures are made by columns in cast iron and ornaments.

The main building turned to be the administrative office. Its internal area was completely redesigned, in order to receive the new use. The wood roof was removed, but its original metal structure was conserved and, the windows were changed to a contemporary material.

The complex has two warehouses; one of them became an exhibition room; most of it was restored; the new doors are a copy of the original ones, but they were not painted to make clear that they are not from the same period. Even the plaster of the façades were made with this same purpose, to do not create a fake historic object. As a nice detail, the lights were designed to highlight the old features of the building.

The other warehouse became an auditorium. The most difficult thing of this building was to restore the walls made by apparent brick; its dimensions are larger than the dimensions of bricks manufactured nowadays, and almost all of them were degraded. In this part we have another interesting idea! The metallic structure of the roof has four scissor beams restored making use of some rails made between 1918 and 1923; the others are just copies. The doors and windows were made like the logical described to the first warehouse, same shape but no painting.

One of the buildings was the stationmaster's house, currently used as an office; it was the most conserved building of the entire complex. The windows were changed and the wall coating was based on the original one.

There are two wagons in front of the main building. In fact, this peace of train helps people to recover and preserve the railway memory. They have different disposal inside and, unfortunately, there is no sign explaining which kind of service, or which kind of train, used to have these two wagons. Inside of one warehouse there is a painting regarding the train theme.

If you want to see more, go to DMDV Arquitetos website!

The Cultural Center and the City

This railway complex is a part of the transition area between the city and the industrial sector. Its surroundings are composed by various industries, among them the first factory of Nestlé in Brazil. Despite of the fact that it is a part of an industrial district, its location is near by the city center, just fifteen minutes walking.

As a public infrastructure the cultural center should have a way to produce money by its own. Currently, there is a restaurant; all the rooms and even the open space can be used by people to study or practice a kind of dance, martial art, thus, people can rent to use the space as a classroom or an office. Even the municipality uses the place to promote cultural events and the city artists.

Final Considerations

Currently, the Cultural Center need to receive some attention; some parts of the wagons and the buildings were destroyed by time and by the population; new and old structures should receive some care. During our visit the place was full of children; it was a party made by public service for some public schools of the city. That showed us that the place is used; the restaurant was operating and, there were some announces of plays and exhibitions; all of them are different signs of use. Crossing an avenue we could see some old working-class houses that keep their ancient use, but they are not that well preserved.

A Cultural Center that promotes culture and, that should pay attention to do not lose an important part of it, the railway culture.