A estrutura da Igrejinha da Pampulha de Oscar Niemeyer

Abstract

Despite the work of architect Oscar Niemeyer have a great acknowledgment in Brazil and in the world, there are still gaps in knowledge about how was defined the structural system and the construction method of some buildings designed by him. Even with the vast literature on the architect, is still possible indicate some points of his work to be explored. Work which was done at a time with few technological resources. In this paper, at first, we attempted to identify and discuss relevant theoretical questions about Niemeyer’s work and about the relation of architecture with the structure of a building, which stand out the following questions: When can we actually consider that there was integration between architecture and structure of a building; why Niemeyer’s works are considered beautiful and why esthetics and beauty are so important to a building, and in which aspects the works of Niemeyer contributed to the technology innovation of reinforced concrete. On the 40s, during the administration of Juscelino Kubitschek, the at time Mayor of Belo Horizonte, a group of buildings designed by Niemeyer for the surroundings of Pampulha’s lake at Belo Horizonte was built. This set of buildings marks a new phase in the Niemeyer’s career, in which he definitely assumes a style that was going to consecrate him. From this set, was chosen the church of São Francisco de Assis (St. Francisco of Assis), popularly known as Igrejinha da Pampulha (Little Pampulha’s church) to a case study about its structure. After a literature review, documental research about the chosen building and visits the same, numerical three-dimensional models were developed in SAP2000 software, with the purpose of describing
and analyzing the structure of the building. We also used softwares such as AutoCAD and Sketchup support for modeling in SAP2000.