Palace of the Congress (Brazil) – the cultural value of alterations on modern buildings

ABSTRACT:

Setting itself apart from contemporary views on material culture conservation, the international debate on the preservation of modern architecture maintained, in the 1990s and 2000s, that such an architecture should be primarily conserved as a means of upholding the ideals of the Modern Movement. This perspective defined itself as a preservation of the authenticity of concepts. The 2000s gave rise to an alternative approach that moves toward cultural heritage tenets and deems matter and history as heritage attributes potentially as relevant as the authors’ ideas. This study contributes to the growing acceptance of this alternative approach, challenging the perception of modern buildings as pure ideas or unchanging images. It does so by exploring the cultural value resulting from intentional changes accumulated over time on the main building of the National Congress in Brasília, Brazil (designed by Oscar Niemeyer, 1957-1960). It used bibliographic and extensive documentary research as a basis for redrawing 100 renovation woks that have been carried out on the building. The analysis of the material shows diverse intentions, strategies, and outcomes from interventions from 1960 to 2020. This study sought to associate them with their authorship, institutional contexts, and different moments in the history of the building. The most significant alterations indicate that deviations from original intention and form in modern buildings fail to always configure distortions to be corrected. They can give rise to new images that replace established ones, updating collective imagery and bearing relevant cultural value. Addition acts can also offer a mode of intervention that enriches those buildings.

KEYWORDS:
Modern architecture conservation; 20th century building conservation; National Congress (Brazil); Refurbishment; Alteration; Age value