Breathing Surfaces

Brazilian Façades of the 1930s and 1940s

Abstract

Modern Brazilian architecture offered a fertile territory for experimenting with the most varied forms of mediation between exterior and interior, such as brises, shutters, wooden trusses, hollow elements and wide eaves. The application of these elements to the façades of high-rise buildings raised questions about the very nature of the facade in the modern era. In addition to the practical role, defining and offering basic conditions for carrying out the activities for which the buildings are intended, and to the operative role, reducing the internal temperature, the facades also perform a symbolic role, giving a face to the institution or the function that is developed there. This article seeks to develop this argument, through a closer look at two buildings of the Escola Carioca, the headquarters of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) (1936–1938), by MM Roberto, and Parque Guinle (1948–1954) by Lucio Costa. It shows that these façades not only delimit the uses and made them possible, but also help the building to engage with the surrounding milieu through elements of climatic adaptation while representing the uses which took place there.