Interbau Apartment Houses

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

In the south-west corner of the Hansaquarter lies the eight-story building by Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil's contribution to the International Builders Fair of 1957. The concrete frame construction rests on V-shaped pillars, and the facade consists of rectangular loggias whose uniformity is broken up by a band of windows in the 5th story, which was intended as the common room of the building. This shared story was to create a feeling of community by providing space for events - an idea called 'conjunto' (free story) in Brazil. The most significant feature is the tower next to the building, which holds a service elevator and passenger elevator. The tower is connected to the main building by passages only at the 5th and 7th stories. Because of this inhabitant-unfriendly solution people mostly use one of the six staircases in the center. As one of the building's long-term (since 1959) inhabitants commented, when told that Niemeyer also built Brazil's capital Brasilia: 'But he can't even build a proper elevator; how can he build a city?' Reference: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/niemeyerinterbau/index.htm #aalto #architecture #berlin #brasil #brazil #brazilian #gropius #interbau #modern #modernism #niemeyer #oscar #piloti