long floor plan, with several cells, made of brick masonry or wattle and daub, and with a vegetated or tiled roof. The mill consisted of a roof supported by brick pilasters, and was divided into two parts, the mill and the boiler. Finally, the big house, the headquarters of the farms, had a very varied form, presenting a single, elevated housing floor, and another lower, for warehouses and service personnel. In the case of São Paulo, there is a specific type of rural construction, the bandeirista house, whose design is comparable to Palladio's plans. In the urban environment, the lot was always narrow and deep, with houses aligned at the front and terraced on both sides, which was a way to protect the walls from rainwater. There was initially a fundamental distinction between sobrados (houses with two or more floors) and one-floor houses, establishing a division between rich and poor. The houses on the ground floor had hardwood floors, while the sobrados had wooden floors on their upper floors. The first floors of the sobrados, however, were also of beaten floors, being used to accommodate slaves and animals or as stores. Only in the 19th century would an intermediate type emerge, the "high basement house." A further distinction, in legal terms, was made between houses and buildings: the former were rustic, precarious, and not subject to prescriptions or rights, while the buildings, of a permanent, solid character, guaranteed certain privileges and were regulated by laws. The width of urban land, in general, varied between 4.4 m and 11 m, a size proportional to 2.2 m, that is, one fathom in length, equivalent to the measurement of the taipal then used as a model. The width of three taipals was called a haul. There were three main types of dwellings, according to width: "door and window", "half dwelling" and "whole dwelling". Although initially identified in the north of the country, especially in Maranhão, these three basic types are applicable to houses in other Brazilian cities in the same period. History In its early days, civil architecture - residences, mills, colonial government palaces - were also built using rammed earth techniques, often with straw roofing. As colonization progressed and a basic urban structure was established, adobe and stone masonry began to be used, with reinforced woodwork and tiled roofs. The first large-scale building in Brazil was the Fribourg Palace, the official residence