Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, São Paulo
Paulo Mendes da Rocha 

Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, São Paulo

Paulo Mendes da Rocha 


Under a large concrete beam, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture unfolds along a sequence of partially buried platforms that guide visitors from the exterior to the interior without interruption. Located in a residential district in which the urban codes are based on those of the garden-city, the project generates an artificial landscape and is inserted in a green space designed by Burle Marx. Thanks to the four meter unevenness of the plot the museum is concealed from Europa Avenue and only the profile of the concrete volume can be seen, rising up to the height of the neighboring houses.

This horizontal piece, which spans sixty meters, is a sculpture in itself; a tribute to technique. To fulfill the structural challenge of a free span of these dimensions, the steel cables of the framework are stretched, the weight of the slab is reduced by lightening the core, and elastic elements are introduced so that each component can expand freely. Between the supports and the beam there is a twenty centimeter band that, aside from making the two elements visually independent, permits periodically replacing the elastomers, which deteriorate faster than the other materials. 


Cliente Client

Sociedade de Amigos dos Museus

Arquitectos Architects

Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Colaboradores Collaborators

Alexandre Delijaicov, Carlos Dantas Dias, Geni Sugai, José Armênio de Brito Cruz, Pedro Mendes da Rocha, Rogério Marcondes Machado, Vera Domschke

Consultores Consultants

Mário Franco (cálculo estructural structural calculation); Luciano Decourt (suelos y cimentaciones floor and foundations), Mari Hashigoushi (instalaciones eléctricas e hidráulicas electrical and water systems), Roberto Burle Marx (paisajismo landscape)

Contratista Contractor

JHS Construção e Planejamento, e Racional Engenharia S/A