This project was one of the finalists and received an Honorable Mention in a national competition for the Masterplanning and Architecture Design of the Hotel Paineiras Complex, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is located in the middle of the TijucaNational Park, less than a mile from the famous monument of the Christ Redeemer.
The project consists in a visitor center for the monument and the national park, an eco-tourism hotel, and a convention center. The visitor center is composed of covered public plaza, exhibition spaces, ticket booths, stores, a cafeteria, locker rooms for hikers, an open-air arena, a train station (which allows access for the monument), 250 parking lots for cars and vans, and transfer platforms.
The eco-tourism hotel was built as a retrofit of an old historic hotel that already existed in the site. The original Paineiras Hotel was built over a century ago as an isolated retreat for Rio de Janeiro?s elite, and its construction was encouraged by D. Pedro II, the last Brazilian Emperor. Along its existence the hotel received many dignitaries from other countries (especially because until the 1960?s Rio was still the Brazilian capital) and even hosted the Brazilian soccer team during the 1970?s World Cup. However, just a few years after this, the hotel entered a decadent period and was eventually abandoned, lying in a decrepit state for the last thirty years.
This project?s primary concern was its relationship with the pre-existing and surrounding environment in which it is inserted. Despite the intense visitation the Christ Redeemer monument receives, the complex still is situated right in the middle of a national park and thus cannot allow significant environmental impacts. Inversely, it should even serve as a conscience-building example for a desired relationship between man and nature.
Secondly, much consideration was given to the important historic character of the original Hotel Paineiras, which in intrinsically related to the collective memory of Rio?s inhabitants and its many visitors. Although its conservation in its original state was much desired, the building on the other hand was much degraded, and also obsolete in regards to the functioning of a contemporary hotel like the one the competition promoters specified. Such situation demanded an incisive but respectful intervention.
The original outer walls represent the "layer of memory" that involves the new block, an embryo of glass and light that leaks along the volume of the hotel. Externally, the reading of the new Hotel is through this historical interface, whose function goes beyond a simple testimony, since it acts as a protective grill for the rooms against the excessive sunlight and visual disturbances from the outside public, acting in a similar way as the traditional ?muxarabis? from Portuguese vernacular architecture that is typical in many Brazilian colonial cities.
The newpavillion involved by the historical layer is provided with a second layer of a more contemporary aspect, composed by perforated metal sheets, which fulfill the same protective function for the top floor, which is revealed above the old walls, assuring the ethereal aspect of the new "building of light".
This relationship between the ancient and contemporary layers reinforces the concept of symbiosis always present in the approach of the entire project, between both the buildings and the landscape.
In front of the hotel, a pre-existing porch will be kept exactly as in its original condition, and shall be maintained unobstructed, allowing the visitors to experience the fascinating views of the Christ monument and the city of Rio de Janeiro, the same way it did more than a century ago. The porch would also serve the public as an entrance to the panoramic restaurant below, a ?platform of light? placed under the porch, strengthening the contemplative function of these places.
Facing a landscape so significant and extremely important for the city of Rio, the insertion plan of the new complex was cautiously thought following criteria to minimize environmental and visual impact of such construction.
In the design process the main concern was to avoid large movements of earth and disturbances in the site configuration, elevating the parking floors and revealing them in a creative way, using the natural morphology of the site to accommodate them. To integrate them with the surrounding landscape, a ?green layer? was designed to involve the parking floors and the public boulevard, merging the constructed mass into a powerful green pavillion that emerges from the florest. The concerning here was to develop a scenario of consistent ambience and healthy coexistence between the built and the natural landscape, not trying to deny the new intervention.