Architecture Historic Preservation Columbia GSAPP Joint Studio Jorge Otero-Pailos Craig Konyk
Resurrecting Rio de Janeiro’s
CENTRO 2010
A4005 Advanced Architectural Design Studio V Fall 2010 Studio Critics Craig Konyk Jorge Otero-Pailos Teaching Assistant Lauren Ortega Published by GSAPP Books / The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Columbia University Historic Preservation Program Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) 400 Avery Hall 1172 Amsterdam Avenue Columbia University New York, NY 10027 Copyright 2011 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. Produced through the Office of the Dean, Mark Wigley and the Office of Print Publications. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher, except in the context of reviews. Publication Designer and Editor Dalia Hamati Printed in the United States
Second Life:
Resurrecting Rio’s Centro Introduction Jorge Otero-Pailos Craig Konyk
This Studio-X was an experiment in micro-planning with preservation to test its ability to resurrect an entire district anew. The Studio traveled to Rio de Janeiro, the capital city of Brazil until supplanted by Brasilia in 1960. The studio proposed programs for a new global agenda, attempting to regain and realign Rio’s prominence through its architectural legacy. Rio’s notoriety, coupled with the new program of global organizations, transform selected sites of significance in the Rio’s Centro, with the intended result of Rio de Janeiro as a renewed “capital” of a contemporary concern.
Acknowledgments This studio would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of Dean Mark Wigley, whose creation of the Studio-X International Initiative has given both faculty and students the opportunity to delve deeper into compelling global urban issues. We are indebted to the Director of the Preservation Program at GSAPP, Andrew Dolkart, for his support of the Joint Studio in Rio, as well as the continuing support of Assistant Director Janet Foster. Without the constant assistance of Global Network Programming Director Malwina Lys-Dobradin at the GSAPP and Pedro Rivera, the Director of Studio-X Rio while in Rio de Janeiro, the travel and discussions would have not have had the ease which allowed the studio to focus while there. Lauren Ortega served as tireless and very much appreciated Teaching Assistant for the Studio. The generosity of knowledge and insight shared with the students while in Rio by Professors’ Lauro Cavalcanti and Roberto Segre was extraordinary. Lastly an enormous amount of gratitude is extended to Keith Kaseman for his advisement, introductions and collegial support for the studio that allowed it to be prepared logistically and to gain a better appreciation of the myriad of contemporary issues facing Rio today.
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Contents 09
Introduction Resurrecting Rio’s Centro Studio Methodology Rio Facts of Interest Potential Program for a Global Center Rio’s Maritime History Centro’s Urbanism
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Student Projects AERONAUTICAL CLUB
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A New Campus
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Redefining the Runway
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Rio’s Alternative Energy Terminal
DIONYSIOS KALTIS KATHERINE MALISHEWSKY RUBEN CALDWELL
ALBERGUE DA BOA VONTADE 36
The Future of Built Media Infrastructure
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A Museum of Architecture
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Re-writing da Boa Vontade
ADHAM ELGHATIT PROW PUTTORNGUL SIDONG LANG
BANCO BOAVISTA 50
Empower
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Reinvention through Redefinition
MAYA RAFIH STARR LAW
ESSO BUILDING 56
Tension DALIA HAMATI
RADIO TUPI 62
The Future of Built Media Infrastructure
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Centro de Futebol
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Bridge
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A Manual to Take Back the City
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NTEC: New Textile Experimental Center
AMY SWIFT CRISTINA HANDAL GARY MCGAHA JEFFREY WHITE NAMPTIP THAUGSUBAN
Introduction
c. 1840
Resurrecting Rio’s Centro STUDIO THESIS Can a new model of urban transformation and regeneration be conceived that is not dependent upon the “newness” value? Is it possible to give new life to a city without following the Bilbao paradigm? This studio will ask students to experiment with preservation as a new strategy for envisioning the future transformation of Rio. Today we speak about “globalizing” the historic centers, which usually means devising ways to attract global capital. Can a new preservation-oriented architectural theory of the “center” help us envision a different sort of global city?
BACKGROUND Modernism’s First Coming to Rio can be traced to the influence and embrace of modern planning and architecture as expounded by LeCorbusier. Like a messiah, LeCorbusier visits Rio in 1929, preaching an urban planning model and creating a vision for the modern city with his famous sketch. And it was to be through his apostles that the word was promulgated and built throughout Brazil. If Oscar Niemeyer, sharing Le Corbusier’s religion of Communism is the Saint Peter in this new Church, then most certainly Lucio Costa is Saint Paul, converted almost overnight from Neocolonialist to devout Modernist.
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historic centers into the “hearts” of new metropolises divided into functional zones. Broadly speaking, 20th century architects focused on the “modernization” of the historic centers. It was Lucio Costa as architectural head of Brazil’s National Service for Historic and Artistic Heritage (SPHAN) who was charged with the preservation of the Brazilian Capital’s Architectural Heritage (as it was not until 1960 that Brasilia becomes the new capital of Brazil). Costa, as a devout modernist, felt his obligation was to erect the Modern City, all the while preserving a few selective examples of existing historic fabric. Costa’s concept of “cityscape”, where selective remnants are “valorized” by the removal of adjacent nonconforming buildings (an example being the Arcos da Lapa viaduct) was employed widely in the Centro District of Rio, where nearly 90% of what now exists dates from 1937 onward. The 1950 creation of Avenida Presidente Vargas in the manner of Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin is a prime example grand modernist visions realized.
The newly installed President Vargas, acting as Rio’s Pope Sixtus V, or in actuality more like Mussolini, after whom he fashioned himself, sets the stage for what will be a highly experimental exercise in modernizing Rio.
With the selection of Brazil as Host Country for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Games and more recently Rio being selected as host city for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, a new opportunity to reinvent Rio is at hand. The Master Plan for the games, RIO2016, locates the venues for the games in four major areas of the city; Deodoro to the Northwest, Barra to the southwest, Maracana to the West, South to Copacabana.
By the 1930s, Gustavo Giovannoni argued that the historic center of cities could not be simply ignored, and had to be modernized by widening its streets and “pruning” its inefficiencies for the sake of modern convenience. CIAM architects of the 1950s made
Excluded from the planning thus far is the Centro, the oldest and historically the most significant section of the city. But currently there is interest to include the Centro in a larger planning initiative. The Studio will focus on the Centro, the his-
toric origin of Rio, studying an area along the historic Avenue Rio Branco (the Nineteenth Century attempt to make Rio “Parisian”), west from the Grand Avenue President Vargas south to the cultural area extending from Cinelandia to MAM and north to the Port Area in the vicinity of Praca Maua, near where GSAPP’s newest Studio-X is located.
SITE Students of this studio will select from a given list of sites of Architectural Significance within the Centro, whether they be architecture or urban artifact, and propose the creation of an urban ensemble, incorporating the historical architectural artifact as the primary element of the composition, utilizing street, plaza, and landscape within the proposed architectural intervention.
PROGRAM Rio’s international stature coupled with the global nature of the world economy drive the program for the transformation of the selected sites of significance. As Rio was the Capital of Brazil until 1960 (indeed briefly the Capital of the Kingdom of Portugal from 1808 until 1821), with embassies and consulates now relocated to Brasilia, the studio will propose a new program for a European Union Economic Cooperation Center (EU_ ECC) Global Center serving as an “economic embassy” of sorts, conceptually promoting economic innovation similar to a World’s Exposition such as Shanghai. Thus the new global opportunities for shared innovation will be showcased in the very heart of Rio’s Centro, with the intended result of attracting related international interest and investment. Thus it will be an experiment in micro-planning with preservation that has the power to resurrect an entire district anew.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RIO Rio de Janeiro is as much an ideal as it is a city. Even as a city, Rio did not develop as most cities do; an invasion of topography
and nature from inland squeezes it against the ocean. And it is this ocean, with its world famous beaches, that mostly defines the image of Rio conveyed to the outside world. In many ways Rio has developed a “suburban” urbanism along the lines of Los Angeles, spreading into the surrounding mountains and west along the coast, with new developments occurring away from the Centro. Rio has been reinventing itself throughout most of its history. Named after a river that did not exist, on the New Year’s Day of its discovery in 1502, RIo has a certain chameleon identity, changing to suit each occupation. It was the Administrative Capital of the Portuguese Colonies, until Napoleon forced the Royal Court to flee from Lisbon, across the Atlantic to make RIo the Capital of the Kingdom of Portugal in 1808. In 1822 it became the Capital of the new country Brazil, holding that title until it was relinquished to Brasilia in 1960. The opening of the Copacabana Beach and Copacabana Palace Hotel in 1923 began the truly modern phenomenon of telegraphing the touristic image of Rio around the globe. With the Pan Am Airway Clipper flights commencing from Miami to Rio in 1930, the popularity of the 1933 Hollywood Film “Flying Down to Rio”, starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, the export of Carmen Miranda to Hollywood in 1940 through to the 1965 song “Garota de Ipanema”, with the sultry voice of Astrud Gilberto, the propagation of the luxuriant jet-set lifestyle image of RIo was forever made. But recent history has been less kind to Rio, with the 70’s and 80’s dictatorships, and a raft of urban ills stalking its impoverished populations. Rio is an enormous city with a population of 11 million persons. Corruption in the 1990’s and the Brazilian debt crisis further dimmed Rio’s prospects for progress. It would not be until the administration of President Lula da Silva that a new opportunity would present itself for Rio and the nation of Brazil. 13
The turn of the Millennium offered new prospects and the actuality of a newly dynamic economic renaissance, with Brazil joining Russia, China and India in the fast economic growth club know as BRIC. Architecturally, Rio became a perfect laboratory to test alternatives to the strict canons of modernism. A group of young architects, such as Oscar Niemeyer, Lucio Costa, Affonso Reidy, along with landscapes by Roberto Burle Marx, were influenced by Le Corbusier’s visit of 1929. Together they created a seductive architectural expression that became known as Brazilian Modernism. These experiments were precursors to the stand alone expressionistic works of today. Lessons from Brasilia resonate with the “signature architecture” urbanism currently practiced in Asia, as best expressed by the Pavilions of the Shanghai Expo, an idea this studio seeks an alternative to.
Still from “Flying Down to Rio”, starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, 14
Studio Methodology LARGER RIO Students will begin by gaining an appreciation for the special urban character of Rio de Janeiro. Students will research the formation of Rio de Janeiro in two broad periods: Before 1930 and After 1930; in other words from its inception in 1502 to 1930 and from 1930 until the present day, documenting a specific aspect.
CENTRO Students will research the Centro, again looking at the same two broad periods of development: Before 1930, and After 1930. By researching and documenting a significant aspect of each period, students will be better able to understand the underlying planning issues that have given shape to the contemporary Centro. Also, during this research project, the students will familiarize themselves with the Conditions Report prepared by GSAPP Preservation Students who have traveled to the site of the new Studio-X located at Rua SĂŁo Francisco da Prainha to better understand the process of evaluation of an extant work of architecture.
SITES OF ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE Selecting a work from a list of Significant Architectural sites within the Centro, research and document as many aspects of an existing Architectural Artifact located in and around the Centro, be it building, landscape or infrastructure. Study its urban principles, materiality, landscape, surfaces and murals; its site, programs and arrangements.
RIO DE JANEIRO Students will travel to Rio de Janeiro during the first week of October to first hand under-
stand and document Rio, its Centro and to view examples of Brazil’s Modernist Legacy, visiting the sites in the Centro that will form the basis of their preservation projects.
GLOBAL CENTER (GC) Upon their return, students will commence on the specific Urban Ensemble project, the creation of a Global Center created inclusively at a Site of Architectural Significance in the Centro. Students will investigate enhancing current program space in the existing work of Architectural Significance, introducing the required additional program and other complementary programming. Students will design an intervention on the site or its immediate context that will enhance the potential of the architectural artifact to be a new focus of the Centro. REFERENCES Architecture / Landscape Otero-Pailos, Jorge ed. FutureAnterior, Vol. VI, No.2, Winter 2009. Cavalcanti, Lauro. When Brazil was Modern: Guide to Architecture 1928-1960. Deutsches Architekur Museum (ed.). Oscar Niemeyer: A Legend of Modernism. Gunnarrson, Anika & Filho, Paulo Venancio. Time & Place: Rio de Janeiro 1956-1964. Montero, Marta Iris. Burle Marx: The Lyrical Landscape. FACO, Annie Dornelles. Morro da Conceicao: da Memoria o Futuro. Guia do Patrimonio Cultural Carioca, Ben Tombados 2008. Culture / History de Assis, Machado. Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas. Jackson, K. David (ed.). Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story. Rufin, Jean-Christophe. Brazil Red. Karasch, Mary C. Slave Life in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1850. (out of print) Skidmore, Thomas E. Brazil: 5 Centuries of Change Wilcken, Patrick. Empire Adrift: The Portuguese Court in Rio de Janeiro 1808-1821.
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Facts of Interest Reveillon, the New Years Day Party on Copacabana Beach celebrates not just the beginning of a New Year, but also the discovery of Rio on January 1, 1502 by Portuguese Explorer Gaspar de Lemos. Rio de Janiero means “River of January”, but there is no River of January. Lemos thought he had discovered a River. Instead he had discovered the Guanabara Bay. In 1697 gold was discovered near RIo. In 1763 Rio replaced Salvador as the Administrative capital of the Portuguese Colonies. In 1807, Napoleon invaded Portugal, prompting the entire Court of King Dom Joao VI (numbering some 15,000 persons) to flee from Lisbon, across the Atlantic in an armada of 40 ships to Rio de Janeiro. In 1808 Rio de Janeiro became the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1821 King Dom Joao VI returned to Lisbon. In 1822, Prince Dom Pedro I, King Joao’s son who was left behind as prince regent and governor, declared Brazil an independent nation, with himself proclaimed Emperor of Brazil. In 1860 coffee becomes the primary export of Rio, superceding gold. In 1889 Brazil becomes a Republic. In 1930 Getulio Vargas seized power in a military coup. He rules Brazil until his suicide in 1954.
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On October 12, 1931, the famous statue “O Cristo Redentor” was finished atop Corcovado mountain. It took nine years to construct. Marconi was to send a short wave signal that would light the Statue, but weather weakened the signal, so the lights were illuminated manually. On Sunday, February 10, 2008 a severe electrical storm damaged the statue. On April 15, 2010, vandals graffitid on the statue’s head and right arm. 1.
In January 31,1956 Juscelino Kubitschek became the president of Brazil. On April 21, 1960 Rio de Janeiro ceases to be the Capital of Brazil, replaced by Kubitschek with Brasilia, a new city master-planned by Lucio Costa & Oscar Niemeyer. In 1984 Niemeyer designs the Sambodromo for the Carnaval Procession. In 1992 President Fernando Collor de Melo was removed from office. In 2002 President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is elected president. He is re-elected in 2006. His term will end on December 31, 2010. In 2007, some of the largest deep-water oil deposits are found in the Tupi Field just off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. In 2009, Rio was selected over Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. In 2014 Brazil will be host country for the FIFA World Cup of Soccer.
Program For A Global Center 10 BUILDINGS SHORTLIST 1913 - JOCKEY CLUB BRASILEIRO 1929 - NORTH BUILDING 1932 - STANDARD OIL BUILDING * 1934 - MESBLA BUILDING 1937 - ALBERGUE DA BOA VONTADE * 1938 - AERONAUTICAL CLUB * 1948 - BANCO BOAVISTA * 1949 - RADIO TUPI STATION * 1951 - EDIFĂ?CIOS SEGURADORAS 1952 - MARQUES DE HERVAL BUILDING
* Selected by students
Selecting from the attached list of Sites of Significance in the Centro, adapt the following Program on to the Site and its immediate surroundings. AREAS Reception/Lobby 1,000 Administration 2,500 Offices 5,000 Meeting/Conference Rooms 3,000 Congress Hall 12,500 Exhibition Hall 22,000 Classrooms 2,000 Residence Hall 5,000 Dining 2,500 Urban Think Tank Incubators 10,000 Student Specified Other Programmatic Elements 10,000 Landscaped Elements/Outdoor Spaces 15,000 The Centers can perhaps be international Think Tank NGOs or other International Organizations that deal with Health, Education, Trade, Sports, Tourism, Urban Growth (modeled on Urban Age, at the London School of Economics), Climate Initiatives, or UNESCO Heritage/Global Preservation International Status. Each student should research a specific Global Organization and its mission for inclusion on the site.
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Rio’s Maritime History Rio de Janeiro, translated into English as ‘River of January’ for its misguided discovery on January 1 1502 that the Guanabara bay was a river, remained a largely uninhabited land until the 1600’s when sugar, gold and diamonds in the region deemed it an ideal port. In 1763, the colonial administration in Portuguese America was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. The city remained primarily a colonial capital until 1808, when the Portuguese royal family and most of the associated Lisbon nobles, fleeing from Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal, moved to Rio de Janeiro. The kingdom’s capital was transferred to the city. The influx of Portuguese noblemen, slaves and the consequent economic growth strained the housing stock and infrastructure, causing major demolition and growth.
1. 1850 2. 1873 3. c. 1750 4. c. 1850
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Centro’s Urbanism
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After Getulio Vargas seized control of Brazil in a military coup in 1930, there was a major effort to modernize Brazil’s then capital. influenced by the theories of CIAM, architect Gustavo Giovannoni argued that Rio’s historic center must be ‘pruned’ of its inefficiencies. Architect Lucio Costa, who was head of Brazil’s National Service for historic and Artistic heritage (SPhAN), executed cityscaping plans meant to valorize certain cultural monuments by removing large swaths of historic fabric to make way for Modern masterplans throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
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Because of Rio’s history as the only European capital to ever exist outside of Europe, coupled with its fantastic climate and topography, European architects’ imaginations were exercised through a wide range of urban visions. Among them were Le Corbusier and Alfred Agache, who proposed radically different but similarly radical masterplans for the 20th Century captial. The result of these varied, poweful urban visions, enabled by rapidly shifting politics, was a palimpsest of urban fabrics which we now experience as modern Rio’s Centro. Avenues fringed with skyscrapers butt up against old colonial neighborhoods, while flattened hills provided landfill for parks and highways.
1. The 1950 opening of Avenida Presidente Vargas splitting the urban fabric and demolishing many tenements and old shacks, which housed the red-light district in Center City Rio de Janeiro. In his first qulômetro, the
surrounding buildings had its maximum height standard of 70 meters. At the time the avenue was inspired by similar pathways raised by the ruling party in Germany, who were known for their rigor in mathematical patterns at the time.
The Americas were invented before being discovered. They were imagined and constructed as symbolic representation. As an artificial society transported to another continent, the Europeans brought their values, dreams and beliefs. In this sense, the new world was born as a reflection of the old. Signs were crucial in the urban structure. - Edmundo O’Gorman 20
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Alfred Agache’s urban proposal for Rio, 1930
2. Alfred Agache’s urban proposal for Rio, 1930 3. Le Corbusier’s urban proposal for Rio; a massive snaking residential build ing topped by a highway roof, 1929.
Le Corbusier’s urban proposal for Rio: a massive and tortuous residential building topped by a Le Corbusier’s urban proposal for Rio: a massive and tortuous residential building topped by a highway roof, 1929
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Student Projects
1938:
Aeronautical Club Completed in 1938, the Hydroplane Terminal at the Santos Dumont airport was one of the earliest examples of Brazilian Modernism. The building comprises a glamorous palette of beautifully crafted materials including travertine cladding, red steel mullions and cherry wood panelling on the interiors. The facade on the ground floor is detailed to slide open to create an entirely open flow from sea to street.
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AERONAUTICAL CLUB ATILIO CORREA LIMA
1938 25
A NEW CAMPUS DIONYSIOS KALTIS
Evaluating the existing structures on the site reveals the opportunity to reimagine their relationships through strategic preservation to create an integrated campus.
1. Site Plan. 2. Elevation from the sea, 3. Proposed extruded curtain wall. Sunlight is deflected and fresh air is drawn up through the gap.
Each existing building is evaluated in terms of its historical and architectural value to determine an appropriate preservation approach while what used to exist becomes a generator for design. Inspired by the collages of Burle Marx, the new addition borrows its vocabulary from the existing buildings through the procedure of cut, removal, repetition and distortion. Materiality is also borrowed from the sites’ palette of concrete, travertine, wood paneling, glass and steel. These materials are used as panels in a second skin that acts as a brise-soleil as well as an air stack. Finally all structures are connected through a promenade that established the aeronautical terminal as the main nexus between public and private as well as the entrance to the campus.
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1. Ground floor plan showing continued circulation in red. 2. Unrolled section showing the original building in the middle flanked by the meeting hall on the left and the hotel on the right. 3. Original floor plans of the existing hydroplane terminal as built. 1.
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REDEFINING THE RUNWAY KATHERINE MALISHEWSKY
The terminal’s transparency and luxurious materiality made it a unique gem in Rio’s architectural landscape as well as an important remnant of the aviation culture in South America. Over the years, the building has been neglected as an important piece of architectural history.
also valorized through the demolition of two surrounding buildings that compromised the openness of the original design, thus freeing the building from the surrounding urban clutter.
Due to urban clutter and insensitive alterations that both block the building from the public view and compromise the original design intent of transparency, the building has lost its original glamour and purpose of viewing and being viewed. Ever since the capital of Brazil moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia in the 1960’s, Rio has grappled to create an identity that would help invigorate the city culturally and economically and has since struggled to re-establish itself as a global city. For this project, I chose to convert the former Hydroplane Terminal into a fashion school that would also host Rio’s notorious Fashion Week. In order to accommodate the extra program and required spatial needs, an additional building was designed that extends from the historic structure into Guanabara Bay, linking the historic concept of the airplane runway with the fashion runway. The addition is meant to displace the view from the Hydroplane Terminal and to extend it out 200 meters into the sea, connecting the air, city, and sea with one gesture. The roofscape of the addition contains a “grand runway” that would create several possibilities for use as a fashion runway and function as a public park when not being utilized for shows. The historic structure serves as the launching point for the addition but is not physically connected. This recalls the building’s original function as a place to watch seaplanes land and take off- a space to watch an event. The historic building is 30
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1. View from highway. 2. Exploded axo showing interaction of the different programmatic elements.
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3. View of the ‘catwalk’. 4. Phasing of proposed extension over time.
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1. Longitudinal section showing connection between the existing and new building extending out into the sea. 2.
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2. Render of re-programmed terminal as fashion display space. 3. The building as an well- connected hub.
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RIO’S ALTERNATIVE ENERGY TERMINAL RUBEN CALDWELL
This proposal creates a space in which various groups can meet and learn about alternative energy production in Brazil while simultaneously seeking to reorganize the approach to Rio’s Centro. Beginning with the construction of the “princess pier” in 1840 the entrance to Rio has been shifting to the north and west, away from its historic center. The program imagines a situation in which people would board at ferry at the international airport. The ferry would then shuttle them to the hydro terminal at the Centro where they would disembark. The ferry would serve two different groups of people. One group would consist of the public, both tourists and locals. The other group would be composed of people associated with NGO’s, large private corporations, semi-public authorities and public commissions. Coming to Rio from all over the world, the energy center would cater to these groups and the different scales of their aggregation, from the intimate (2-4 people) to the assembly (100+). The center uses its location near the regional airport to form a hub between the international destinations integral to the dissemination of alternative energy information and the specific sites upon which the research was being conducted. The program of the building was organized around the idea that some productive dialogue could occur between the public and members of these “energy summits” with the original hydro terminal forming the central node.
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1. The proposed extension picks up on the glass / travertine composition of the original building. 2. Exploded axonometric showing connections across the buildings and levels. 3. Rendered section of the conference facility on the left and hotel on the right of the existing terminal.
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1937:
Albergue da Boa Vontade Translated to ‘Goodwill Hostel’ this is the first built project of the prolific Brazilian architect Affonso Reidy who devoted his career to creating Rio’s modern identity. The Albergue reveals the influences of Europe Rationalism in Brazil such as: - that form should express function. - aspects of practicality, comfort, economy are prioritized over ostentatious ornamentation. - natural ventilation and daylight are key aspects, informing the courtyard typology of the building and the innovative louver system on the facades. The structure is the work of Brazilian engineer Emilio Baumgart, nicknamed “The Creator of Brazilian Concrete”. It consists of the repetition of uprights over a given range in order to reduce the section of each structural element and promote a sense of lightness.
ALBERGUE DA BOA VONTADE AFFONSO REIDY
1937
THE FUTURE OF BUILT MEDIA INFRASTRUCTURE ADHAM ELGHATIT
This proposal calls for a strong urban connection to the nearby cruise ship terminal and port via the currently cluttered urban context of the chapel. This creates a central plaza that strengthens the position of both the current building and the chapel. The additions are then layered in the site in three ways. Firstly, a roofscape will connect the chapel’s platform to the roof of the Albergue da Boa Vontade. Second, a new landscape will run throughout the site up until the terminal which acts as connective tissue. Thirdly, the streetscape will meld with the building on the street level. The new program contains work, leisure and temporary accommodation for the cruise ship workers and the locals. Restoring a program that recognizes the original altruistic intentions of the building becomes part of the preservation strategy.
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1. Render of the restored original building with extension clad in the same materials. 2. Site analysis series show- ing demolition and consequent spaceplanning. 3. Birds-eye-view of the proposed extension as it connects to the original building.
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1. Section through the chapel 2. Aerial view of the Albergue within its new landscape. 3. New courtyard. 4. Roofscapes. 3.
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5. Reidy’s courtyard is re- stored to its original state. 6. View through original building.
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A MUSEUM OF ARCHITECTURE PROW PUTTORNGUL
The Albergue da Boa Vontade is situated near the city’s highway and port where the industrial and residential fabric intersect. Two important buildings will be preserved in this site strategy; the military police battalion and flour mills. The design objective is to narrate the site’s history through the act of removal to reconstruct the new site character. The tool of removal is the street prolongation that performs a cross cut through buildings and into the ground.
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The act of ‘removing’ and ‘reconstructing’ becomes the main preservation strategy which creates new spaces while revealing from Galeao site spaces’ fundamental structure. The International Airport the older edge of a frcut from om allows a better understanding Dum Santo Dum Santo s s ont ont of the existing Airp Airpbuildings’ construction and ort ort captures the contrast of old and new. from
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The new program for the site - Museum of Architecture - will be distributed through the spacesResidential of the Albergue, battalion Buildings the police Residential Buildings and the new underground building whilst utilizing the flour mill as an urban wall to enclose the site. airport
Residential Military Police Buildings Battalion
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1. Site plan series showing important routes and views through. 2. Circulation around the site. Albergue Da Boa Vontade Al 3. Site forces affect Military Police Battalion Military Poli /Affonso /A fragments of theEduardo building.Reidy 4. New connections are made while the original facades of the buildings are left intact.
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preserved buildings cut-through streets approaching streets removed area preserved block
cut-throughremaining streets mass approaching streets skin remaining
cut-through streets remaining mass approaching remainingstreets skin
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Concept + Site Strategy
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1 + 2. Proposed cuts shown in red. 2. Sectional perspective through the site.
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RE-WRITING DA BOA VONTADE SIDONG LANG
This proposal questions how we can use preservation to think about design and program. Reidy’s original Boa Vontade was a homeless shelter not only offering living space for homeless people but also giving them an opportunity for education. I want to respond to this idea by not only designing the program, but by also preserving Reidy’s interior structure, the courtyard and the anatomy of the building, making them the central component of my contribution. Inserting a new park and information center, creating a new language school and reprogramming the mental hospital to youth hostel are part of the strategy. My aim is to bring more public life into this heavily industrial neighborhood to create more urban energy. This is not only a working space but a living space. Boa Vontade encourages urban renewal and feeds off of the heavy industrial urban planning. The more places are introduced the more the environment contributes energy. The New Albergue de boa Vontade offers a safe, nurturing zone, its placement heavily contingent on the distinct damaged psychological context of Rio.
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Photo of original entry with the ‘floating volumes’ cleanly expressed,
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1. Rendering showing Reidy’s original ‘floating volumes’ concept restored. 2. Renderings inside and outside the curved wall. 2.
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3. Section through original building with added curved wall in the background. 4. Ground floor plan.
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1948:
Banco Boavista Neimeyer’s use of the structural concrete frame allows for the eradication of exposed beams to facilitate flexibility and interior partitioning inside the bank. There are 3 circulation paths: one for bank customers, another for employees and a third for upper floor office workers. The building represents Neimeyer’s ideas of freeform modernism as expressed by the voluptuous Brazilian woman. An undulating glass brick facade at ground level creates expressive curves and rich lighting effects on the interior. Neimeyer treated each facade differently according to its orientation; West: vertical louvers for sun-shading and privacy on a narrow street – blue shades on top, white at the bottom. North: horizontal shades. South: fully glazed.
BANCO BOAVISTA OSCAR NEIMEYER
1948
EMPOWER MAYA RAFIH
Candelaria is a place of combat. Not just physical. It is as place where many people were killed, where many were baptized, where many others were buried. It is also the place where the majority called for freedom and democracy and where journalists learned to take part in the fight for choice.
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Candelaria is the place people come to to talk and claim freely. It is the place where journalists gather from different parts of the world to tell and broadcast their stories to the world. The project is an International Media Center in Candelaria on the site of Oscar Niemeyer’s Banco Boavista. The entire block is appropriated and turned into the place where people gather to exchange. The alignment with the square is however kept through a thick wall, called the Hyphen, which links the Banco Boavista building, an open and transparent building, to the opaque and massive Studios building. A series of public platforms, ramps and staircases draw the pedestrian from underneath the hyphen into the inner courtyard of the project. Parts of the grid of the main façade of Banco Boavista are extended to form the main façade of the Hyphen. On the other side, the facade links all three structures together to form one single block, the expansion of Niemeyer’s Banco Boavista.
1. Original floor plans expressing Neimeyer’s idea of the free-form plan 2. Facade acting as a link. 3. Transverse section. 4. Ground floor plan. 5. Street elevation. 52
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REINVENTION THROUGH REDEFINITION STARR LAW
The Banco Boavista, designed by the renowned architect, Oscar Neimeyer, stands today on the Praca Candelaria amidst the city’s bustling business center. Despite a prominent location, the bank is unobtrusive, easily disappearing into the landscape of the massive urban block typical in Rio. In stark contrast to the monumentality of the Praca and the Cathedral, one finds remnants of an older Rio in the narrow alleys behind. As a second life for the Boavista Bank I propose a program that includes a new bank that would specialize in micro-loans as well as a center for entrepreneurial development. The incentive for this program coming from the desire to effect not only the landmark building but the surrounding community as well. Existing sobrados in the backstreet would be preserved and rehabilitated in order to house small local businesses.
1. The campus is at once very private yet also very open, when there are moments of complete transparency- views into a series of inner voids of activity. 2. Re-programming of the building. 3. New elevation.
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The original banking floors were preserved in their entirety. However, the existing glass walls are removed to transform the space into an open-air passage and gateway between the city square and the historic urban fabric behind. The public is given full access to a previously very privatized space. Additionally, five typical office floors are partially cut-away in order to create a dramatic atrium space that frees and highlights the uniqueness of the existing louvered facades. The new entrepreneurial campus building extends from the Neimeyer building in a very linear language. Utilizing semi-translucent glass louvers, and an irregular line, the building seeminglyPDLQ HQWUDQFH IRU DGGL apWLRQ HVFDODWRU FLUFXODWLRQ pears and disappears from view. YLVLEOH IURP VWUHHW FRQWLQXH WR XSSHU IORRUV
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1932:
Esso Building Built at a time when Brazil was popularly regarded as “the sleeping giant of the Americas� and a potential world power, this building was the headquarters of the brazil division of Esso after oil was discovered in brazil 40 years prior. Designed by Robert Prentice, a Scottish architect who was trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, using the fashionable art deco style. In 1995 IBMEC opened its first business school in the Esso building, establishing it as a hinge between Brazil and the rest of the world. The building was reworked to incorporate Harvard style classrooms, a new stair and an administration addition on the roof. During this time the physical context underwent radical changes. The building originally stood alone on the water at the beginnings of an extensive land reclamation project that rio would implement over the next 30 years. These changes over time imposed new forces onto the Esso building, producing new tensions.
THE ESSO BUILDING ROBERT PRENTICE
1932
TENSION DALIA HAMATI 1.
The S.O building’s conception tells the story of Rio’s nascent globalization. Its design continued to evolve in tandem with Rio’s growth as it was converted into a business school. Throughout, its physical context underwent radical changes. The building originally stood alone on the water at the beginnings of an extensive land reclamation project that Rio would implement over the next 30 years. These changes imposed new forces onto the building, flipping the back and front. I am interested in expressing the natural tensions that arise between the changed context and the relatively unchanged building. By internally restoring the building to its original state and removing any notion of main entrance, the original 360 degree orientation is returned. Then, rather than physically intervening in the building I want to change the way it functions programmatically and the way it is perceived. I want to give these tensions a form using the program of ‘Campus’ and ‘Housing’ as the pretext for a new building. On the Centro-facing side the building appears as it always has. On the other side it responds to Rio’s new urbanism, re-contextualizing in an effort to regain intentionality. It does this by leaping over the highway in a transverse expression. ORIGINAL BUILDING
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NEW CAMPUS
BRIDGE TO MAM
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1. Exploded plan showing new connections between the original building, the proposed campus & MAM. 2. Drawing of the rotations experienced in plan as one moves from the original building through the new campus, highlighting the changed contexts’ 360o. 3. Timeline of globalizing Rio. 59
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1. Section through ESSO building, new business school and highway. 2. Render of view from ESSO building over the highway. 2.
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3. Site Plan 4. Site Section
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1937:
Radio Tupi (Edificio dos Diários Associados) Located in the north port district of Gamboa, the neighborhood had once been a thriving industrial zone with traditional residential blocks for workers consisting of sobrado-type row houses. South of this area, on a hill, sprawls Morro da Providencia, the city’s oldest favela, whose settlement can be dated back to the early 1800s. Edificio dos Diários Associados was the first building constructed in a masterplan designated to clear most of the historic fabric of the Gamboa District. This was the only building completed, so the media building stands alone in a low-rise residential district.
RADIO TUPI OSCAR NEIMEYER
1937
1. The proposal focuses on integrating the context – in a sense blending the dissonance of form and typology – in rehabilitation a scheme environmental area to revitalize not just a residential mixed retail-residential building, but a district. mixedof retail-office 2. Overall view the original traffic building + pedestrian extension.
THE FUTURE OF BUILT MEDIA INFRASTRUCTURE AMY SWIFT
Radio Tupi is a building in distress. Its growing obsolescence to the function it was built to serve, and its location within a deteriorating urban social condition is threatening the buildings’ future. The current owner, who now occupies only three of the twelve floors, is selling it with the stipulation that it be converted to the International Olympic Media Center for the 2016 games. The preservation proposal outlined optimistically assumes that these plans will go forward, while taking a further step of planning for the building’s post-Olympic life. Radio Tupi will be a means to draw meaningful development into this neighborhood – a municipally protected preservation zone of dilapidated sobrados – in order to provide a future for this Niemeyer work. A campus of residential and mixed use development will provide infrastructural support. Open space is valorized to provide points of interest within the neighborhood, as well as semi-private residential and retaillined walkways are planned interstitially within large blocks. The media complex itself will be doubled in size to 500,000sf to accommodateits new use as first the International Media Center followed by a collegiate Center for Digital Journalism.
empty lots facade only informal construction
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environmental rehabilitation area residential mixed retail-residential mixed retail-office pedestrian traffic
empty lots facade only informal construction colonial facade style
colonial facade style
unknown facade style
unknown facade style
DEMO
DEMO
TUPI
TUPI
The concrete cobogo screen double-skin facades will be preserved. The design element of the screen has been picked up in both plan and elevation. In plan, the screen is used to filter traffic, providing dynamic movement within the complex and an element of being both within yet not quite within a space. In elevation the screen is played with in scale, orientation, and material to diffuse, frame, veil and reveal views.
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public open space semi-private open space visual landmark view corridor preserved natural open space media campus TUPI
3. Second floor plan. The major gesture of the new form mimics the folded gesture of Radio Tupi around a nucleus,but does it at the smaller scale of the surrounding sobrados.
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CENTRO DE FUTEBOL
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CRISTINA HANDAL
Oscar Neimeyer’s Building of Diarios Associados and its site will become Rio de Janeiro’s new Soccer Center. Given the importance of soccer in Brazil and its crucial ancillary media, the building will be the soccer media center “TUPIFUT” and adjacent to it, on the full block is “ESTADIO DO GAMBOA”, a new soccer field in the neighborhood. This stadium hosts the local league games as well as those for children playing in programs afterschool and in NGO teams. Thi stadium structure integrates the natural landscape for seating on the left above the field, and activates a new streetscape for Rua do Livramento below; the continuous old streetfront is turned inwards towards the mountain in the form of soccer supplies markets and sports bars and cafes. A new structure for seating on the north side of the stadium also revives an integrated atmosphere on the street below. The building respects the original design of Oscar Neimeyer making use of the existing structure in the column grid, the double height spaces and the cobogo brick shell. The building is retrofitted with the media program that has TV, radio and internet production, as well as the learning center. This is where students come to TUPIFUT to receive certificates on soccer broadcasting; here they learn in the classroom and have real-time access to the profession as well. There is also a live audience in the soccer broadcasting programs. These make soccer media a sport in it of itself.
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1. Sketch section through the original buildng as it is re-programmed. 2. Passage underneath the tiered seating showing the original screen elements peeking through.
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3. Section showing new bridge connections to the hilltop favela. 4. Roof plan describing Radio Tupi as a new sports complex.
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BRIDGE GARY MCGAHA
The Radio Tupi Station operates under a unique set of conditions that allow it to bridge or separate two communities. Directly behind Tupi is Morro de Providencia, the community that has Rio de Janeiro’s first favela. Many inhabitants of the favela come down from the hill daily to work in the Port area. Upon this descension, however there is no transient zone that connects to the community below. The massive scale of the original structure makes it substantially out of scale with its surroundings.
To enable an adequate provision of sunlight, a new façade is created with larger perforations. These perforations are a derivative of the original structure. The scale of the perforations vary according to program. Additionally, parts of the façade are converted to glass for better lighting and energy efficiency. The new structure acts as a reflection of the past while being a more delicate form that allows greater visibility and accessibility from surrounding communities.
This design scheme chooses to use the original scale to bridge the two communities by creating a social link. That designated link is education. By creating a school for all age groups, personal growth and development is never exclusive to age and makes self improvement attainable to those in pursuit. The adapted structure has class rooms, laboratories, health facilities, a book store, and a public library. The building structure of radio Tupi is preserved and readapted in order to maintain its historic value while providing a new structure that acts as an extension of the existing. The new school building now faces the favela at the top level, the local neighborhood on the street level and is divided as a large scale urban plaza between zones. The inhabitable truss stretching to the favela, contains class rooms and recreational facilities and is open for public access to all community dwellers that desire outdoor recreation. Inside of this structure are apertures, which allow sunlight to filter to the plaza level below as well as its own interior. The top portion of the truss is open space conditioned for leisure and social exchange. The second element is a large stair that contains small cafes and a projection room. Weaved into these stairs is a ramp that leads from the level of the favela down to the level of the street facing Tupi. 68
1. Roof is extended via a bridge to Morro de Providencia. 2. Axonometric showing the roofscape. 3. Cutaway axonometric. 1.
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1. Section through the Tupi building and bridge connection 2. View of cascading public space and underbelly of bridge. 70
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A MANUAL TO TAKE BACK THE CITY JEFFREY WHITE
Uniqueness, character and history are disappearing from the neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. Design originality, contextualization, and heritage are no longer as important as maximizing profit and space. The distinctiveness and inimitable icons of the diverse neighborhoods created an the aggregate urbanism we know as modern Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, the aggregation of the neighborhoods and city have slowly dissolved to neighborhoods of the formal and the spontaneous. PORTO MARAVILHA Formal development in Rio has and continues to be a pursuit of destructive founding—land use that ignores ecological and social significance of the environment/ existing built environment. Founding or alteration is a necessity in order for humans to adapt and to live, but we must also preserve what we have founded. Two conflicting ideologies continue to fracture modern preservation practice, the ideologies of Ruskin (Authentic) and Viollet-le-Duc (Restored). Desires and impact on the individuals and communities connected to the place. This brings to mind the questions of what, why and for whom are we preserving? What pieces of the environment should we attempt to reconstruct or preserve, and what are the warrants for historical treatment? Are we looking for evidence of the climactic mo1.
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ments or for any manifestation of tradition we can find? Should things be saved because they were associated with important persons or events? Because they are unique or nearly so or, quite the contrary, because they were most typical of the time? Because of their importance as a group symbol? Because of their intrinsic qualities in the present? Because of their special usefulness as sources of intellectual information about the past? Or should we simply (as we often do) let chance select for us and preserve for a 2nd century everything that has happened to survive the first? It is time to stop growth and change in older areas and concentrate growth in the “empty” fringes. NTEC will serve as a new landmark which hopefully will reactivate the entire Gamboa neighborhood.
1. Series showing the hill condensing over time 2. Renders of the hill in its early and later stages of decomposition. 3. Final presentation of project folding as part of a comprehensive preservation strategy.
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NTEC: NEW TEXTILE EXPERIMENTAL CENTER NAMTIP THAUGSUBAN
The project looks at facadism, the practice of demolishing a building but leaving its façade intact, building new structures in it or around it. Radio Tupi has became an icon in the Gamboa neighborhood, largely due to its facade, and therefore should be preserved. The newly renovated building is intended to preserve the existing architecture to benefit the cultural and social aspects of the local Brazilians in Centro Rio. The proposed program is a textile experimental and exhibition center, NTEC, which is intended to be closely linked to the origin of one of Brazil’s greatest phenomenon, the Carnival. The center is designed to open up the street, creating a new circulation loop to the Samba City, located a few miles north-west. Bringing the outside in, the building will better engage the neighborhood both physically and programmatically. In this particular project the façade is renovated and altered to be used for purposes other than what it was originally intended for. It becomes the urban wall of the project within which the exterior circulation lies. Users are navigated around the preserved façade and are able to get a new experience of the existing building. NTEC will serve as a new landmark which hopefully will reactivate the entire Gamboa neighborhood.
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1. Section + ground floor plan. 2. Elevation rendering.
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1. Analysis of the the skin leads to the proposed layering strategy. 2. Approach towards the ramp.
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3. Elevation 4. Site Plan 5. Model testing the interlocking form. 6. Elevation view
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ISBN 978-1-4583-8839-1
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9 781458 388391
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