Pampulha Modern Ensemble, Architectural complex in Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
The Pampulha Modern Ensemble is an architectural group with curved concrete buildings, gardens, and an artificial lake that forms an integrated landscape experience around the area. The complex includes several parts: an art museum, cultural centers, a church, and public green spaces that together create a cohesive whole.
Mayor Juscelino Kubitschek commissioned Oscar Niemeyer in 1944 to design a casino, church, ballroom, club and hotel around the artificial Lake Pampulha, with structural projects by engineer Joaquim Cardozo. All but the hotel opened on 16 May 1943, with President Getúlio Vargas and governor Benedito Valadares present. The casino closed on 30 April 1946 when President Gaspar Dutra banned gambling nationwide, and reopened as the Pampulha Art Museum in 1957. UNESCO inscribed the site on 17 July 2016 in Istanbul.
The church's interior carries azulejo panels painted by Candido Portinari, and the adjoining gardens were laid out by Roberto Burle Marx. The complex also includes the Casa do Baile, a dance hall on an artificial island reached by an eleven-metre bridge, and the Yacht Tennis Club, built in 1942 and listed by IPHAN in 1994, whose gardens are also by Burle Marx.
The site is easy to navigate on foot with various entrances to its buildings and public areas situated around the lakeside. The best time to visit is outside the hottest times of day, as there is limited shade and the paths cover long distances.
The church uses unusual materials like ceramic tiles as main decorative elements instead of traditional architectural details. This experimental design approach made it a pioneering example of integrating craftwork into modernist architecture.
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