Yacht Tennis Club, Yacht club and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Pampulha, Brazil
The Iate Tênis Clube is a recreational club on the shore of Lake Pampulha, with a building designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the early 1940s. Its upper level holds the Portinari Room, named for Candido Portinari, who painted one of the murals there; the ground level shelters boats. Roberto Burle Marx designed the outdoor gardens.
Mayor Juscelino Kubitschek commissioned Oscar Niemeyer in the early 1940s to design this building as part of a regional development project for the Pampulha area. The project formed part of a broader architectural initiative to modernize the lakeside district.
The upper level holds the Portinari Room, named after Candido Portinari, who painted one of the murals there. The club's outdoor gardens were designed by Roberto Burle Marx. The building was first called Iate Golfe Clube before taking its current name.
The club is an active members' facility on the shore of Lake Pampulha, so access to the building and gardens is generally limited to members and their guests. The original Niemeyer block and the 1970s annex stand side by side; the annex is the structure UNESCO requested be demolished. The site can be viewed from the lakefront path and from the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi.
UNESCO made the demolition of the club's 1970s annex a condition of the 2016 World Heritage listing, because it blocked the view of the club from the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi. Belo Horizonte filed a repossession request for the occupied land in 2019, and a court decision was still pending.
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