As diversas acepções do termo “vila” e seu rebatimento espacial na cidade brasileira

From the point of view of architecture and the city, it is very intriguing that the same term (vila) would be employed in Brazil to designate the richest house and the worker’s village, a small town in its totality as well as a district of a city. Whereas in other countries people make use of different words to express such spatial and symbolic differences, in Brazil the same term is used to express them. We aim here to investigate these linguistic coincidences regarding architecture and urban spaces so divergent, presenting every meaning of the term and its spatial configuration in the Brazilian city.