Research Trip: Summary

MATERIAL & STRUCTURAL EXPRESSION

The raw material quality gives these buildings their strong ‘honest’ aesthetic. The raw finish and expressed structure also work towards creating a monumental form of Brutalism in Brazil which is often framed within a natural setting with trees, mountains, the sky, creating a dialogue between these two opposites of – the concrete building and nature.

MONUMENTALITY / HUMAN SCALE

The image of Brutalism is often of a building which demands attention due to its strong presence and exaggeration of scale, creating monumentality. This monumental scale disrupts the relationship between a human being and the building and therefore attention is made to smaller-scale details which relate to the human experience, creating two opposite scales.

INSIDE:OUTSIDE / PUBLIC:PRIVATE

From visiting the buildings there appears to be an integrated experience between inside and outside often making a space neither one nor the other. This blurring of inside and outside to make the experience of the building involve its surroundings has a lot to do with the tropical climate of the country.

The ground plane is very important in Brazilian Brutalism as it’s manipulation decides how the building is entered and approached. It is often a moment of transition, a transition between public space to private space; a transition from space designed by the architect and not; and a transition from leaving the ground and descending or ascending into the building. The ground plane is often used to bring public space into the building with minimal thresholds creating the blurring of inside/outside.

ETHIC / AESTHETIC

It is easy to group buildings by a shared aesthetic, in terms of their materiality, monumental form and demonstration of structure. In terms of the ethic it is more difficult as not all brutalist examples are driven by an ethical manifesto; as well as buildings which are not considered brutalist which do have an ethical approach.

On the other hand, ‘Brutalism as an aesthetic and not an ethic’ is dependent on the definition of ‘ethic’ – if the architectural style was replicated and copied the ethic of the material quality and expression of structure is carried through, even if a political or social ethic is lost. This ‘ethic’ is of particular interest as the aesthetic is the result of the ethical treatment of material and structure.

‘CONTEMPORARY BRUTALISM’

Concrete is key to all of Brazil’s modern architecture and in São Paulo especially this resulted in the addition of numerous high-quality brutalist buildings to the city’s urban fabric. These buildings, most notably the city’s school of architecture FAU-USP, have been a great influence for younger architects in the city. This has resulted in a revival of a brutalist aesthetic from various young architects who appreciate the materiality and unique qualities that concrete possesses, and have demonstrated this is some excellent recent work.

MAINTENANCE

In the majority of buildings that were visited their visual appearance had been affected by weathering and discolouring as well as buildings that had structural problems. There were also buildings that required adapting for function or programme. This all leads to decisions having to be made in terms of maintaining the integrity of the building, however, depending on who are making these decisions and for what motive, the architectural qualities of the building are often ignored. This was very obvious in the case of the gymnasium at Clube Atletico Paulistano and the school Escola Jardim Ipê.

 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS…

The age of the country is key to Brutalism in Brazil and the meaning of Brutalism in the country. Due to the country only being established in 1889, Brutalism was a movement to create an architectural identity for the country in terms of a cultural manifestation of its social, political and economic present and its aims for the future.  Brutalism began as a manifesto but as its architectural qualities began to influence others it became a fashion that was replicated and interpreted around the country. This, however, does not mean that Brutalism is purely an aesthetic as its approach to material, structure and space is ethical.

Brutalism is Brazil may be chronological similar, and aesthetically similar to global Brutalism but as the country was not affected hugely by WW2 its historical background is completely different. The buildings themselves, mainly due to Brazil’s tropical climate, have a different organisation of space and relationship to public/exterior space, compared to brutalist architecture in the UK and other countries. The difference in space and therefore the experience of the building makes ‘Brazilian Brutalism’ different to other countries.

Visit: Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM)

The Museum of Modern Art in Rio is arguably the city’s best example of brutalism and was designed by Affonso Eduardo Reidy. Unlike many of the brutalist buildings of its time in Brazil MAM received a lot of international interest, with articles published in the Architectural Record (USA), Architects’ Journal (UK) and L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui (France).

The structure and materiality of MAM has a level of sophistication in its use of concrete. The mix of materials (concrete, glass and brick) highlight the use of concrete and its structural and sculptural qualities. The separation between the external structure and the habitable space exaggerates the how the building is supported, as it is read as two forms, giving a sense of weightlessness.

The materiality on the inside creates an interesting dialogue between the building, the art work and the visitors. As well as the art being on show the building is exposed to demonstrate how it functions to facilitate its use, with exposed lighting, ducting, and the suspended floor structure.

The public space and the building’s relationship to it is key in this project, with the light connection between the building and the ground plane. The importance of the public space is seen through the entrance as an extension of the public space, with only a glass threshold separating the two spaces – inside from outside. The open plan ground floor consists of the reception, shop and an entrance barrier leading to the ground floor gallery space, with the highlight being the central cast-in-situ concrete spiral staircase, leading to the main gallery spaces above.

The varied gallery spaces on the first and second floors provide opportunities for different works of mixed sizes to be viewed from various vantage points. The change of height and width of gallery spaces as you move through them creates moments of compression and release, and changing connections with the artwork. Roof lights in the angled ceiling (controlled by blinds, which were closed while visiting) provide opportunities for natural light to enter depending on the art work being displayed. The journey through the spaces consist of moments which offer connections with the outside as well as a constant view and connection to another part of the gallery.

Visit: Cidade das Artes

Designed by the French architect Christian de Portzamparc and completed in 2013, Cidade das Artes is a building which is difficult to call brutalist, however it does provide an interesting analyse in terms of shared features between this building and Brutalism.

The building is lifted 10m off the ground plane of landscaped gardens with stairs and escalators connecting to the two levels. The vast scale of the building creates degrees of publicness of space within it. The space (public space as well as purpose built theatres) are there to be activated by Art with steps which can double up as raked seating as well as break out spaces within the main concert hall for smaller performance. As a concept this is all fantastic, however, there are not the events nor the visitors for the building to reach its full potential.

Although the building is at such a large scale, the openings to the sky; surrounding city; and mountains, create moments of release giving the building context and comparisons of scale.

The Cidade das Artes is a mass of concrete forms with the materiality continued inside and out. In the smaller concert hall, the material palette of concrete and timber is used to manipulate different acoustic qualities, with the stage able to rotate and face the two different materials for the acoustics best suited to the performance. The main concert hall is painted in the inside and therefore loses it material quality which exists in the rest of the building.

The building consists of various concrete forms, both rectilinear and curved, creating interesting moments when these forms collide, and a strong sense of movement. During a tour of the building, it was explained that the concert halls are in the form of ships which is the driving concept of the building creating the sense of movement, with pillars at an angle to symbolise masts.

The momumentality and exaggeration of scale throughout the whole building is overpowering with little connection to human scale. The location of the building is difficult to visit and the scale of the building contrasts against its low level of habitation. These two factors make the building questionable in whether it is in fact functional, or has it just been built as a landmark?

Visit: Catedral Metropolitana

Unlike many other brutalist buildings in Brazil, its relationship with the ground is rather forceful than delicate. Externally its monumentality is similar to an Aztec temple as opposed to the sophisticated play between heaviness and weightlessness in other Brazilian brutalist examples.

The contrast between inside/outside is an effective tool in analysing the space as this contrast is what stood out for me while visiting the cathedral. The huge dark grey concrete form, which on the day I visited sat against a light grey sky, is brought to life internally by the 4 strips of stained glass which meet at the roof to form a cross and wrap the entire building, with light and colour. As well as the natural light through the stained glass the layering of the concrete façade is brought to life internally as a gap allows the internal layer to be washed in natural light. The repetition of the form and the effect of natural light enhances the human experience within.Externally the building’s scale is exaggerated with uninhabited height used to enhance the spatial experience internally, as well as reinforcing an external monumental image.

The condition of the concrete externally appears to be poor, which may be due to both; the thinness of the material; and the pyramid form which maximises the building’s surface to the natural elements.