Rio De Janeiro: The Latest Architecture and News

+ 51

• Architects

  MNMA studio

• Location

  Rua Dias Ferreira, 217 - Leblon, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 22431-050, Brazil

• Category

  Store

• Lead Architects

  Andre Pepato, Mariana Schmidt

• Area

  80.0 m2

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Fran Parente

+ 19

• Architects

  Tavares Duayer Arquitetura

• Location

  Av. Rio Branco, 151 – Centro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Category

  Store

• Authors

  João Duayer, Thiago Tavares

• Team

  Alice Varella Tepedino, Nathalie Ventura, Fred Gomes, Clarissa Paes

• Area

  50.0 m2

• Project Year

  2018

• Photographs

  Nathalie Ventura

For those in the northern hemisphere, the last full week in January last week kicks off with Blue Monday - the day claimed to be the most depressing of the year. Weather is bleak, sunsets are early, resolutions are broken, and there’s only the vaguest glimpse of a holiday on the horizon. It’s perhaps this miserable context that is making the field seem extra productive, with a spate of new projects, toppings out and, completions announced this week.

The week of 21 January 2019 in review, after the break: 

+ 11

UNESCO has named Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as the World Capital of Architecture for 2020. In keeping with UNESCO’s recent partnership agreement with the UIA, UNESCO designates the World Capital of Architecture, which also hosts the UIA’s World Congress. The World Capital of Architecture is intended to become an international forum for debates about pressing global challenges from the perspectives of culture, cultural heritage, urban planning and architecture.

The work of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer is currently being featured by the city of Rio de Janeiro. Throughout the month of January, mock-ups and engravings signed by the architect can be seen in Barra da Tijuca, in the city’s West Side. There, visitors can discover the history of Brazilian architecture and see some of Niemeyer's most famous work. The RioCVB created the exhibition to celebrate Niemeyer's legacy and showcase Brazil's landmark buildings.

It’s been a month since Brazil lost one of its oldest and most representative assets. A fire destroyed and erased more than 200 years of the Paço de São Cristóvão’s architectural history. The building served as a residence for the royal family, and turned a great part of its collection into dust, with many of the items being one-of-a-kind. The National Museum is seeking to rebuild in the aftermath of the tragedy.

"Residencial Casa Atlântica" in Copacabana, Zaha Hadid's first project in South America, was canceled. O Globo reported the cause as "the delay of the city hall to release the work license and the consequent delay of the launch and inauguration of the project." The luxury residential condominium was designed in 2013 and should have been opened in time for the Olympics.

The entertainment industry frequently captures unusual architecture from theme parks that explore bygone eras to remote locales in the hills of Las Vegas that often go unseen.

A two-hour drive from Rio de Janeiro's renowned beaches you can find a 20th century French Normandy building in the state's sierra region: The Palácio Quitandinha.

The following is text is an open letter from the Institute of Brazilian Architects in response to the devastating fire that tore through Brazil's National Museum on Sunday evening.

The Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB), fulfilling its mission of contributing to the technical-scientific and sociocultural development of the country and preserving the national cultural heritage, deeply mourns the irreparable loss of the National Museum, the central institution of culture and science located in the district of São Cristóvão, in Rio de Janeiro, that was consumed by fire on the night of September 2nd.

The fire in Quinta da Boa Vista not only left a an architectural ensemble declared national heritage in ruins but also destroyed millions of artifacts and historical documents belonging to its collection, which were of worldwide relevance and among the most representative of Brazilian history. It is, therefore, an irrevocable loss, which is being lamented by everyone who cares about Brazilian culture and memory, both in Brazil and abroad.

The downtown skyline of a city is perhaps its most symbolic feature. The iconic cityscapes that we know and love are typically formed by skyscrapers, but much of the surrounding context is made up of other high-rise buildings. Yes, there is a difference between a skyscraper and a high-rise. Research company Emporis defines a high-rise as a building at least 35 meters (115 feet) or 12 stories tall. These high-rise buildings play a major role in the more sprawled urban context of larger cities today.

Read on for Emporis' list of the 20 cities in the world with the most high-rises. You might be surprised by which cities made the cut.

+ 27

+ 14

• Architects

  Reinach Mendonça Arquitetos Associados

• Location

  Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Category

  Offices Interiors

• Authors

  Henrique Reinach, Maurício Mendonça

• Architect in Charge

  Tony Chen

• Area

  960.0 m2

• Project Year

  2014

• Photographs

  Leonardo Finotti

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, currently holding its forty-first annual session in the Polish city of Krakow, inscribed twenty new cultural sites on its World Heritage List, including the historic city of Ahmedabad in India, archaeological sites in Cambodia and Brazil, and a “cultural landscape” in South Africa. The Committee also added extensions to two sites already on the list: Strasbourg in France, and the Bauhaus in Germany. On the other hand, the historic center of Vienna was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger as the Committee examined the state of conservation of one-hundred-and-fifty-four of its listed sites.

+ 9

Cannon Design has unveiled its proposal for a mixed-use Cancer Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Originally envisioned as a “private hospital serving patients that can afford a high quality of health care,” the project transformed into a partnership between the public and private sector after preliminary feasibility studies determined the price of the site to be prohibitively high.

Thus, the project expanded to become a mixed-use complex with ownership shared between socially minded city government and private investors.

+ 12

At the Rio 2016 Olympics, Studio GTM Cenografia developed a temporary installation for Nike. The space, inspired by containers and industrial sheds, occupies a total area of 600 square meters and was built in a metallic structure and wrapped in galvanized trapezoidal tiles. The cube used in the project is an installation from Brazilian artist and designer Muti Randolph, one of the pioneers of digital illustration in Brazil.

Our friends from ArchDaily Brasil talked with the architect Daltro Mendonça (GTM Cenografia) to find out more details on material choices and the execution of the project.

+ 35

• Architects

  Cité Arquitetura

• Location

  R. Sorocaba - Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brasil

• Category

  Residential

• Authors

   Celso Rayol e Fernando Costa

• Project Coordinators

  Daniel Osório, Lúcia Andrezo e Francisco Meyer

• Area

  2485.94 sqm

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  Alessandro Giraldi

+ 16

• Architects

  UNStudio

• Location

  Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Category

  Showroom

• Architects in Charge

  Ben van Berkel, Wouter de Jonge, Imola Bérczi and Aurélie Hsiao, Olga Kovrikova, Wing Tang Man

• Local Architect

  SPOL Architects

• Overall Project Advisor

  Cheil Worldwide

• Client

  Samsung Electronics, IT & Mobile Division (Seoul, Korea)

• Area

  1200.0 m2

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  Joana França

+ 14

• Architects

  Bernardes Arquitetura

• Location

  Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Category

  Institutional buildings

• Area

  1020.0 m2

• Project Year

  2015

• Photographs

  Leonardo Finotti