From the Beginning

Well, I have to admit that I am very excited about starting this blog, but I have spent the past few days asking myself, where do I start? I believe the most logical step is to show you the first image that spoke to me and that has remained the most constant as I have been developing my thoughts on thesis and on my personal interests as an architecture student.

I cannot remember how I stumbled upon Lina Bo Bardi’s work, but this building struck me and this image said so much about the potential for one building (housing a private institution) to affect and mold public space in so many scales. The Museum of Sao Paulo is actually quite simple in its construction and overall appearance; it’s a two story box supported by its red concrete hangers; there is a free space underneath that spans 74 meters and leads to a garden called Belvedere Trianon that looks out onto Paulista Avenue. The garden sits atop the rest of the museum, a set of theaters and underground galleries that also serve as a cineplex and can be accessed without entering the fine art galleries. Essentially, the suspended galleries and underground theaters could be considered separate objects, and most importantly, their separation offers a clear space for the public to interact during their daily activities as well as recognizing, connecting and affecting with the larger scope of the city.

What attracts me to this building and its site is the idea that it can have a different meaning for every person that encounters it, for some its a place to shield themselves under the sun while waiting fot the bus, for others, its their local movie theater. In my eyes, this structure transcends its original program (that of a fine art museum) and becomes an urban monument, one that (when first built) demarcated and strengthened the urban fabric, and now seems to have become a more maleable object, one that changes its image and purpose with its inhabitants.

In a way, the building is not defined by what it contains, but instead by what surrounds it.

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