MATA-BORRÃO: UM GRANDE OLHO DE MADEIRA NO CENTRO DA PORTO ALEGRE DA DÉCADA DE 1960

Abstract

Built in 1960 in the center of Porto Alegre, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, the Exhibition Pavilion of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, by architect Marcos David Heckman, integrally built in wood, became an iconic building in the memory of city residents. Popularly known as “Mata-Borrã o”, (“Ink Blotter”), due to its unusual eliptical form, it responded to State Governor Leonel Brizola’s need for publicity regarding his government’s realizations, notably regarding education, with the many schools nicknamed “brizoletas” built throughout the State, also in wood. Oscar Niemeyer had already experimented with a similar eliptic forma in his design for the Liceu auditorium in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1954, although with a completely different structural solution, in reinforced concrete. In the Porto Alegre pavilion Heckman adopted a more traditional technology, using wood, but with a very unconventional form and structure, exploring a curved geometry, transparency, and a sense of lightness that provided a strong contrast with its urban context. The striking but ephemeral pavilion is still remembered as the result of political circumstances, the formal liberty that such a project allowed, the choice of using wood, and its author’s references to modern brazilian architecture.