Botafogo Cove
rio de janeiro, rj, brazil
2002
"penso cidade" exhibition
171.550m²
Architecture: Celio Diniz, Eduardo Canellas, Eduardo Dezouzart, Tiago Gualda and Ana Slade
This Project was conceived as part of an exhibition where a number of areas in the city were analized by various architecture offices. Admittedly one of Rio de Janeiro’s most beautiful sights, Botafogo bay is not used to its full potential these days. Predominantly a place for commuting, the beach outline can be viewed in two opposite speeds. The first one, marked by the speeding vehicles, is abruptly crossed by the second one, the slow speed of contemplation that shifts the pedestrians’ eyes to the direction of the Pão de Açúcar. Considering this paradoxal situation, our proposal has its own speed, one of permanence, gatherings, for the narrative of walking. The suggested proposal would creat an urban aproach able to gift the sea border with new equipmants for leisure and culture, oscillating between the reverie and the objectivity to supply the cultural necessities of our time. The suggested architecture of an open-air cinema, a garden-museum, nightclubs, bars, restaurants, a hostel and the School of Music and Dance attempts to open itself up and invite the landscape to become one with it. The roof is the sky; the walls, the landscape; the floor, the gardens.
1 GARDEN-MUSEUM Situated next to the cinema and the Time Tower, the garden-museum is formed by almost topological variations that raise themselves from the ground and join the islands segregated by the highways. These variation shelter suspended gardens that function as a support for the exhibition of sculptures and open-air settlements. The museum encapsulates a constant motion inspired by the speed of the cars and the curve of the bay.
2 TIME TOWER The Time Tower gives us a view of Botafogo Bay’s landscape in different periods of time, thanks to a display system tied to a flexible mechanic arm that can log the coordinates from a virtual image generated by computer graphics at the same position as the coordinates from their real perspectives. With each position, a different system with a different period of time is fixed. The order would be cronological, in keeping wiyh the way one would go up the tower.
3 OPEN-AIR CINEMA Formed by a flagstone that projects itself over the bay, the cinema is a slight continuation of the bay’s curve. The access to the projection area is from under the screen, transforming the city into a backdrop of the projected film. Before entering the projection area the spectators can use the bistro, cafeteria and convenience store located in the covered area.
4 NIGHTCLUBS Located underground, along the edge of the beach, the nightclubs don’t interfere the vastness of the natural landscape. They relate to the outside world through transparent floors located on the sidewalk level and embrasures that make use of the uneveness that exists between the pavement and the beach. At night, these openings light up the sand with the different coloured lights coming from the nightclubs.
5 BARS AND RESTAURANTS The bars and restaurants make use of a left over area formed by the short grass adjacent to the sand at the end of the beach’s curve. They look for easing out the transition between the built outline and the beach.
6 HOSTEL AND SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DANCE They represent the beginning of the movement as a counterpoint to the Garden-Museum. Curved surfaces rise from the ground and vibrate in the square, bringing life and respecting the urban formation. As in the Museum, the spaces create suspended gardens that can be used for dance, music and capoeira classes.