Sammelband of 12 Urban Development and Municipal Policy Pamphlets.

1900-1916

Sammelband of 12 Urban Planning and Municipal Policy Pamphlets. Buenos Aires: various publishers (most Municipalidad de la Capital), 1900-1916. 21.5 cm, pamphlets various sizes, ranging from 15-75 pp. each, most 40+, one large oblong folded plate, approx. 108 x 26 cm; half-calf with marbled boards, gilt title “Folletos” and number “22” to spine. Fair: losses to spine revealing binding waste of French origin, blank free endpapers foxed, one ffep with small tear where creased against first pamphlet.

A glimpse into the regulatory environment of Buenos Aires as it underwent massive growth and development in the first two decades of the 20th century. Surging population, driven by immigration, required increased municipal infrastructure and planning to control and regulate urban space. This group of pamphlets includes new ordinances and reports on paving (1908), traffic (1907), prostitution (1907 & 1908), urban investment for the city’s centenary (1909), the plan for a new worker’s neighborhood (un “barrio obrero”) with large folding plate detailing architectural elevations and street layout (1909), housing for the poor (1913), and contracts for the burning of trash (1916).

Two early and substantial titles of prostitution are of additional interest and currently not located (separately) in OCLC records (along with most of the other titles). The first is a list of the regulations applying to the operation of prostitutes and brothels in the city, including architectural requirements (specific kinds of ventilation for example), health registration, and minimum ages. The second is a lengthy report on the implementation and impacts of the regulations, one year later, with research and opinion.

The municipal ordinance for the new worker’s neighborhood is followed by the plans for worker housing designed by Fernandez Poblet y Ortúzar. These are illustrated in a large folding plate, at least some of those images also appeared as in-text illustrations in the magazine La Ingeniería the same year (precedence not established). Poblet y Ortúzar’s designs have been discussed at length by Sandra Inés Sánchez and Rodrigo Amuchástegui in their essay on the bio-politics of domestic space in Buenos Aires (Revista Invi, 85: 30 [Nov. 2015], pp. 23-82).

$425