MAR – RIO ART MUSEUM
Our challenge was to unite tree existing buildings with different architectural characteristics to house the Museu de Arte do Rio, the school “A Escola do Olhar” as well as cultural and leisure spaces. The existing buildings, the palace Palacete Dom João”, the police building and the old central bus station of Rio, connected shall be part of the major urban redevelopment in the historic downtown of Rio de Janeiro. For each construction we analyzed different levels of preservation.
The first step was to establish a flow system allowing the Museum and school to work in an integrated and efficient manner. Therefore, we proposed the creation of a suspended square on the police building rooftop, which will unite all accesses and host a bar and an area for cultural events and leisure. Consequently, the visitation will be from top to bottom. It was established that the palace, due to its large ceiling height and structure free plan should hold the exhibition areas of the museum. The police building shall be used for the school, auditoriums, multimedia exhibition areas, administration areas and employee areas of the complex.
The stilts, currently used as an access to the road, will turn into a large foyer for entire complex, and will hold the sculpture exhibition areas. Access will be controlled between the two buildings, characterizing this empty space as internal, open and covered. The marquee of the Road, heritage element listed by the City, will be used for lavatories, store and region of loading, unloading and deposits.
The connection and circulation of visitors between the two buildings, in the form of a suspended catwalk will belong to this new building, featuring the most unusual state possible For the police building, we propose the suspension of the last floor to balance the height of the two buildings as well as the replacement of the masonry closing façade profiles using translucent glass, making the structural system of indented columns visible and revealing the stilts. Finally, as the main mark of the project, we suggested that the suspended square have an abstract and aerial form. A fluid and extremely light structure, simulating water surface waves. A poetic architectural character full of meaning, simple and at the same time modern regarding the structural calculation. This element shall be seen near and by far, and from below to who is arriving at the Praça Mauá, from above by those who are at the Morro da Conceição.
AM APT
DOHA BEACH HOUSE
AK HOUSE
The clients, a couple with three children, bought two plots that had no flat land in Angra dos Reis, at Iate Clube dos Santos. Bernardes Arquitetura’s main concern was to place the house in the most subtle way possible on this totally sloping terrain, so that it would be completely integrated with nature and could barely be seen from the sea. For this, we made the wood cladding and the entire structure in corten steel.
To create the maximum flat area to receive the family and not to attack the existing vegetation, three floors were created as a cascade effect. On the first arrival floor we had a living room with gourmet kitchen, a nice round table and a group of Moles armchairs. On this floor is the largest balcony, with sun loungers and a swimming pool across the side of the house.
The second floor is further back than the first, allowing a totally clean view and receives the main living room, dining room, master suite, balcony and service area. The first floor pool needed a super reinforced structure and in order not to compromise the proposed lightness, we made an inclined beam that disguises the double depth of the pool and makes the second floor’s height higher.
On the third floor are the rooms for the children and guests, a mini pantry and home theater. The clients left us free to propose the best ideas for the terrain and suggest the spaces.
RHG HOUSE
This house was designed to be the vacation residence of a couple with children. Located in Guarujá, at São Paulo coast, the house has a constructed area of 1000 square meters and was designed in 2009 by Bernardes Arquitetura. One of the main questions was the inclination of the land. The solution was to raise pillars of armed concrete, supporting the metallic structure that supports the two floors. Apparently decoupled from the ground, the house has a steel structure with wooden doors and windows.
The wood appears with prominence in the construction, mainly in the internal area, as in the lining of the superior floor. In this floor, beyond the kitchen, there are the living room and dining room that lose its borders when the doors slide and open for a solarium and the swimming pool. It reveals, then, a great area integrated with the vegetation and the sea, where the view is free of interferences thanks to the body glass guard. The inferior floor is protected and reserved to shelter 5 suites, tv room, deck with spa, sauna, and a pantry.
The interior design was developed with functional solutions. Drawn with the same characteristics of the lining, wooden furniture covers the living and dining rooms and arrives until the kitchen, connecting the three spaces. Another prominence is the suspended and revolving fireplace created by Dominique Imbert, of the French company Focus and the “Jangada” armchair designed by Jean Gillon.