Metonymy of convenience: the buffer zone in the listing of Igreja da Ordem Terceira do Carmo in the municipality of São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT The listing of the Igreja da Ordem Terceira do Carmo, in the municipality of São Paulo, in 1996, reflects the complexities of the identification process of Brazilian cultural assets, evidencing the disputes between selection narratives that sometimes widen the possibilities of understanding the cultural asset, and other times reiterate consolidated practices of classification of built assets. The discussion took 38 years and resulted in the selection of parts of the building - facade, nave, chapel, sacristy, and rammed earth compartments - listed as built heritage and the delimitation of the other facades and integral elements of the building as buffer zone.