Located on the top of the Boa Viagem viewpoint in the city of Niterói, the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum - MAC was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer. Inaugurated in 1996, it is a modern architectural masterpiece dedicated to housing a collection of Brazilian contemporary art from the 1960s to the 1990s. Rising above the cliff like a lighthouse, it appears to float in the air, resting on a water basin. Facing Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay in Brazil, its circular lines and revolutionary double-curved form stand out on the horizon, offering an open plaza of 2,500 square meters alongside a reflective pool that gives the structure a remarkable sense of lightness.
In the 1980s, as Brazil restored its democratic regime, Oscar Niemeyer returned from exile. Confronted with a country where the population had spread to the outskirts of cities, Niemeyer continued designing projects characterized by sinuous slabs, domes, vaults, and platforms, maintaining his signature curved vocabulary. As Juan David Chávez Giraldo explains in "Niemeyer: Space as Invention," his aesthetic impacts through a symbiosis with the site from a modernity that adapts and merges with geometries that echo nature. In this way, Niemeyer's architecture moves beyond the historical modernist narrative, instead seeking to validate and express its specific context. Through the use of spatial sequences, compositional relationships, proportions, volumes, colors, textures, contrasts, and broad geometric strokes, his projects create a memorable spatial experience, surrounding users with unconventional aesthetic stimuli.
I didn't want a glass museum, but rather a large exhibition hall surrounded by straight walls and a gallery that protects and allows visitors to pause from time to time to appreciate the extraordinary view. - Oscar Niemeyer
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Spotlight: Oscar NiemeyerBoth the idea of interaction and the concept of place are evident in the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum. Additionally, as architect Juan David Chávez Giraldo notes, there is a tension between platonic geometry, the mountainous geography of Rio, and the figure of young Brazilian women. The MAC integrates an extensive landscape design, where the building, composed of a double-curved volume whose first and second floors connect externally by a ramp, seems to float effortlessly above the site. As Styliane Philippou describes in "The Radical Modernism of Oscar Niemeyer," the ramp functions as an urban beach, mediating between the building and the city. The more public the building, the longer and more intricate Niemeyer’s ramps become, generating necessary public spaces and dissolving the boundary between open urban space for all citizens and enclosed space.
It is one of the most daring structures and in a certain way it closes the game of emptiness and fullness, or of form and counterform that is so completely and charismatically exemplified in the public buildings of Brasilia. - Josep Ma. Botey in "Oscar Niemeyer. Works and Projects," Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1996
The project consists of a semi-underground floor surrounded by a water mirror with a surface area of 817 square meters and a depth of 60 centimeters, along with an upper volume spanning three levels. With 98 meters of free space, the external serpentine ramp leads visitors inside, linking the museum’s first and second floors. This ramp unites leisure and promenade areas while connecting the public space to the more stable central core, which houses the permanent exhibition hall.
On the ground floor, there is a storage area for artworks, a bar, a restaurant, and an auditorium with a capacity for 60 people. The first level includes the reception, workspace, entrance hall, and administrative offices. It also provides access to the hexagonal, double-height exhibition hall, which is surrounded by a circular balcony-like space designed to incorporate the surrounding landscape. In an effort to bring the bay into the museum, essentially turning nature into an exhibit, a continuous window encircles the entire structure, offering panoramic views of the bay. Between the first and second levels, a mezzanine wraps around the museum’s interior, divided into smaller exhibition rooms. On the second level, five additional galleries provide a total of 697.80 square meters of exhibition space.
The terrain was narrow, surrounded by the sea and the solution occurred naturally, having as a starting point the inevitable central support. From it, the architecture occurred spontaneously like a flower. The view of the sea was beautiful and had to be seized. I suspended the building and under it, the panorama became even richer. I then defined the profile of the museum. A line that starts from the ground and without interruption grows and unfolds, sensual, up to the roof. The shape of the building, which I had always imagined to be circular, became fixed and I stopped passionately inside it. Around the museum I created a gallery open to the sea, repeating it on the second floor, like a sloping mezzanine over the great exhibition hall. - Oscar Niemeyer
The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum features a radial structure standing 16 meters high, with large spans. Its roof has a diameter of 50 meters and covers an area of nearly 2,000 square meters. The entire structure is supported by a single cylindrical central pillar, 9 meters in diameter, anchored to a 2-meter-high footing. This complex engineering solution was designed to withstand a load of 400 kg/m² and wind speeds of up to 200 km/h. The central hall, covering 462 square meters, is completely column-free and surrounded at the top by a spacious area for smaller exhibitions. To achieve this open space, large pre-stressed radial beams were placed beneath the museum’s ceiling, supported by six columns measuring 50 centimeters in diameter. Both the beam framework and the columns form a superstructure that transfers its load to the first-floor structure. Finally, this weight is carried by a set of pre-stressed concrete radial beams, which rest on the central pillar and extend outward in balance for approximately 10 meters.
The circular roof received thermal and waterproofing treatment while the beams were built using pre-stressed concrete, and the exhibition hall floors were covered with blue carpeting. In the access ramp, red concrete was used in combination with the white of the side walls. Additionally, 70 sheets of triplex glass were manufactured for the project. Each bronze-tinted panel, measuring 4.80 meters in height and 1.85 meters in width, has a thickness of 18 mm and is framed with steel profiles. Tilted at a 40-degree angle from the horizontal plane, these panels can withstand the equivalent weight of 20 people.
Peter Gasper designed the museum’s lighting. Towards the central hall, a play of lights reflects on the walls and invades the space. Outside, spotlights were placed beneath the water’s surface, further enhancing the structure’s sense of lightness. As a result, the museum’s profile is defined by a seamless line that emerges from the ground and rises sensuously towards the roof without interruption. Ultimately, the guiding principle of this project, designed by one of modern architecture’s great masters, was to create a uniquely beautiful object—one that would become a true act of pleasure.
This feature is part of an ArchDaily series titled AD Narratives, where we share the story behind a selected project, diving into its particularities. Every month, we explore new constructions from around the world, highlighting their story and how they came to be. We also talk to the architects, builders, and community, seeking to underline their personal experiences. As always, at ArchDaily, we highly appreciate the input of our readers. If you think we should feature a certain project, please submit your suggestions.
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