Yacht Tennis Club

(Former Yacht Golf Club)

Inaugurated in 1942 as a public property, it was privatized in 1961. Its initial proposal included, in addition to water sports and traditional in the seat of the shore, golf, in another thirst that never came to be built. The land used for the second site was also part of the architect Oscar Niemeyer’s project and was later transformed into the current zoo of Belo Horizonte city.

In this project of the lake shore, the architect privileges the straight lines in the place of the curves, in which the butterfly wing roof with “V” inclination towards a central channel, which was a solution designed by the architect Le Corbusier, but that was only spread after being specified in the Pampulha. Flooded by the waters of the lake, in the pilotis was the garage of boats and boats. The building, which recalls a boat, is accessed by a ramp and has two rooms for parties, surrounded by a balcony and an open floor, the latter recalling a bow that advances on the lake.

The “Water Mirror” is decorated with works by the artist Esthergilda Menicucci, by  painter Cândido Portinari with the works “The Suicide of Consciousness,” also called “The Scarecrow,” and with the panel “The Sport” by landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. The walls are made of glass, integrating the interior with the landscape and parasols on the west side that protect the interior from insolation. The main building is covered with granite and the loose elements are covered with tiles, as well as in the buildings of the Museum of Modern Art and the House of Dance.

Burle Marx’s landscape design lacks nothing, apart from a project to subsidize a future restoration. Throughout the years, other annexes were built, de-characterizing the architect’s original project, which made it difficult for UNESCO to register the club as a cultural heritage. The problem was solved with the expropriation of the club by the prefecture, which will demolish the extensions.