ARCHITECTURAL WORLD

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer; completed 1943 In 1941 the mayor of Belo Horizonte, Juscelino Kubitschek, commissioned the architect Oscar Niemeyer to build a series of buildings around Pampulha lake. These included a yacht club, a dance hall, a casino, and a chapel, the latter of which is known as the Church of St. Francis of Assisi (1943). Under Kubitschek’s influence Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, aspired to compete with the two hitherto hegemonic metropolises, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1938 the governor suggested the need for a tourist hotel in the colonial city of Ouro Preto, a project that would be also carried out by Niemeyer (1939). Kubitschek’s desire to introduce modern elements in a city that still remained provincial and traditional motivated the urbanization of the lands edging the artificial lake in Pampulha, situated fifteen kilometers from the city center, and created for the recreation of Minas Gerais’s new industrial bourgeoi...

The 20th-century architecture of Brazil became widely famous for its originality and formal freedom in contrast to more codified paradigms of modernism. Celebrated abroad as a step ahead of functionalism and rationalism, Brazilian modernism acquired international significance in the 1950s, and the effects of it can still be found in contemporary architecture. However, to grasp the full scope of Brazilian 20th-century architecture, it is necessary to understand the radical transformations in its economy and society that led to an accelerated process of urbanization. From 17 million inhabitants in 1900, 70 percent of whom were living in rural areas, Brazil closed the century with almost 170 million, with more than 60 percent living in urban areas. Brazilians entered the 20th century under the influence of positivism and sanitary engineering as two events of 1897 indicate: the planned city of Belo Horizonte was inaugurated to replace the 18th-century Ouro Preto as the capital of the state...

The construction of Brasilia, the much-maligned capital city of Brazil, represents an important and cathartic moment in the history of modern architecture and the International Style. As well as becoming a national emblem for the geographically disparate country, Brasilia has also become, in more recent times, a symbol for some of the perceived shortcomings of the modernist movement. Bringing together many of the European ideals that had accompanied the Utopian urban plans of the postwar years, Brasilia necessitated the deployment of monumental architecture on a scale almost unprecedented in the 20th century. The emphasis on establishing a new cultural identity for the South American power was interwoven with the global architectural language of Oscar Niemeyer and the Le Corbusian-inspired planning of his mentor Lúcio Costa. The optimistic proposal was to be realized within an incredibly short construction period and in the wake of enormous political pressure. The decision to relocate ...