Architects of Brazil: Indio da Costa
DAZ_FORUM
19. August 2006 - 15. September 2006
The Rio de Janeiro Architecture and Urbanism Centre (CAU) presents the exhibition Indio da Costa in Berlin. The multimedia exhibition combines three major urban projects plus the 45-minute documentary, which outlines the career of the architect famous for combining technology and respect for nature in his work.
The exhibition has the support of the Municipal Urbanism Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro City Hall and is part of the Culture Cup, a cultural exchange programme between Brazil and Germany. It is launched by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, which throughout 2006 promotes an extensive cultural agenda in various German towns in commemoration of the World Cup.
The Indio da Costa exhibition is held at a time when the first world focuses on Brazilian architecture. This is evidenced in the Pritzke Prize, the most important prize in architecture in the world, even known as the “Architecture Nobel Prize”, and which was recently awarded for the second time to a Brazilian: Paulo Mendes da Rocha.
The exhibition
The multimedia show presents three projects: Rio Panorama, Sugar Loaf and Mauá Pier displayed in video images, in addition to the documentary Architects of Brazil - Indio da Costa (Brazil, 45 minutes, 2005) made by the Rio de Janeiro Architecture and Urbanism Centre (CAU) in partnership with the prize-winning Brazilian producer Limite Produções. The projects, still to be implemented, have tremendous impact and offer a better reflection of the essence of the thinking and architectural language of Indio da Costa, award-winning professional both at home and abroad, whose compositional and spatial freedom is an identifying feature of his contemporaneity. Curated by Ana Borelli (CAU).
About Indio da Costa
Architect Luiz Eduardo Indio da Costa was born in Rio Grande do Sul in 1938 and graduated in 1960 from the University of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. His graduation coincided with the construction of Brasilia which consequently had a strong influence on top architects such as Oscar Niemeyer, alongside Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe and Richard Neutra. After an internship in a construction company, he opened his own office in his childhood home where he had lived with his parents in Botafogo, and today he and his son, Luiz Augusto Indio da Costa, who is responsible for the design area of the company, have their own business.
In his forty years of career, he designed a wide range of architectural and urbanist projects. In 1965 he was awarded the top IAB/RJ prize with his design for the Himalayan Bear Accommodation in the Rio Zoo, where he explored a structural solution with a certain entertaining touch. Indio da Costa works with a series of multi-purpose buildings. He began almost intuitively by using structures that later became a trademark of his entire production, mainly the tendency to use wood or apparent concrete and his concern with the environment.
“City and nature, reason and emotion, classicism and romanticism are opposites constantly present in the concept of the creative work of Indio da Costa. He believes that nature is the essence of our life, and it is not acceptable for man and his basic product, the city, to destroy it”, writes the architecture critic Roberto Segre.
About CAU
Rio de Janeiro Centre of Architecture and Urbanism (CAU)
Rua São Clemente, 117 – Botafogo.
Rio de Janeiro–RJ – CEP: 22260-001 – Brazil
e-mail: caurj.smu@pcrj.rj.gov.br
phone/fax: +55 21 2579-2038
The Rio de Janeiro Centre of Architecture and Urbanism, at 117, São Clemente St., occupies a building that was once a residence built in 1879 by architect Joaquim Fonseca Guimarães. In the 20th century it became the traditional Jacobina School that closed down in the 1970s. In 1987, the facade of the building was protected by the local government.
After being restored in 1996 to the design by architect Alcides Horacio, it was ready and equipped to house different kinds of exhibitions, offering excellent conditions, both in technical and security terms.
