Pampulha Museum of Modern Art

(Former Pampulha Casino)

The winning project of the contest for the construction of a new casino, instituted by Juscelino Kubitschek, then mayor of Belo Horizonte, did not correspond to the expectation of modernity that he wanted to print to his management, even in architecture, which led to the cancellation of the contest and the sending of an invitation to an architect with the desired characteristics.

Oscar Niemeyer was chosen and created a project that stands out for following the Corbusian principles with odd mastery. The casino was implanted in an elevation in the lake shore, that extends its highlight, and received a landscape project of Roberto Burle Marx, valuing it still more. In this garden, which also has a water mirror, several levels and clumps of plants, we find a female nude sculpted in bronze by August Zamoyski; another female statue, also in bronze, by José Alves Pedrosa and a third statue, representing two embracing women, sculpted by Alfredo Ceschiatti in marble. At the entrance, we find a glass floor illuminated below.

The set is formed by three blocks. The prismatic, the curvilinear and the main one is a regular prism of glass, through which one is invited by a light marquee of free form. In this ceiling room with double height, the transparent closing of the glass panels, the independent structural columns and the sculptural ramps linking the different levels stand out: entrance hall, intermediate dance hall and mezzanine. From the intermediate level, you reach the curvilinear block where the boîte is located. This meeting is harmonized by a staircase wrapped in glass. In the first plane, the rectangular side volume, where originally the service area and bathrooms were located, on the first floor, and the kitchen, in the second.

The interior of the casino is characterized by the richness of the materials used: Argentinian yellow marble, onyx, stainless steel, Italian alabaster, pink mirrors, wodden floor tiles with stainless steel frieze, jet glass floor and illuminated below in the dance floor, ivory wood furniture upholstered in leather or velvet and interior sunshades covered in leather, as acoustic and thermal solution in the boîte.

It is necessary to highlight that, emblematically, in this building and in the Architectural Complex of Pampulha as a whole, Niemeyer exercises its charm and gives continuity to the curvilinear aesthetics of the Minas Gerais baroque and the mountains.

The Casino was the first building of the Architectural Complex of Pampulha to be inaugurated in 1943, and had golden times. Regarding the prohibition of gambling in Brazil, the building, and its respective use, went into decline, until, on November 20, 1954, in the management of Mayor Celso Mello Azevedo, the place was reopened as an Art Museum, with a memorable exhibition of the art from Minas Gerais.