This dissertation examines the production of urban space which accompanied the process of industrialization/urbanization of Sao Paulo, focusing on the production relations in construction and especially at the periphery of the city. Many fragmented views of economic, sociological and historical literature are bound together with the results of a survey into the every day life and practices of builders who at a time suffer the influence of the broader urban process and construct the scenery of everyday life of a city. Construction proved to be an especially favourable ground for such an exercise for it takes part directly in both production of commodities and reproduction of society, leading to an understanding of the social process as a whole.