This paper aims to analyse the first concrete initiative towards the construction of the Brazilian Student House at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris in the 1920s. As proposed in the bill presented to the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies in 1926 by the physician, scientist, professor, and deputy Antônio Austregésilo Rodrigues de Lima, the idea of a house for Brazilian artists, physicians, scholars, and professors in Paris emerged from a Franco-Brazilian network of scientists, diplomats, professors, and institutions. As we argue, the Brazilian Student House in Paris in the interwar period can be conceived as a scientific-diplomatic object, and the disputes around its idealization may be framed as an example of both scientific cooperation and scientific competition, as has been well theorized by Pierre-Bruno Ruffini. Moreover, as observed in Austregésilo’s discourses defending the project, the creation of the house would institutionalise and improve not only the circulation of Brazilian scholars in Paris but also Brazil’s cultural influence in France. Although the house was not built when planned, and the Maison du Brésil was inaugurated only in 1959, the analysis of this first project can contribute to further discussions about the mutual scientific and university interests shared by France and Brazil during the 20th century.
