Modernist house
Courtyard and pool.
Halley Pacheco de Oliveira — CC BY-SA 3.0 · monicaewagner — CC BY-SA 2.0 · monicaewagner — CC BY-SA 2.0 · monicaewagner — CC BY-SA 2.0
In the Gávea district, at the foot of the Tijuca forest, stands a white modernist house built in 1951 for the family of the diplomat and banker Walter Moreira Salles, designed by the architect Olavo Redig de Campos with gardens by Roberto Burle Marx. Since October 1999 it has been the Rio home of the Instituto Moreira Salles, a non-profit cultural foundation the family set up in 1992. The institute works in photography, literature, music, visual arts and cinema and holds one of Brazil's most important historical photography collections, shown in changing exhibitions in the house's rooms. Yet the house is half the visit: an inner courtyard with a pool, slender columns, murals, and tropical gardens sloping down to a small stream, ringed by forest trees. Entry is free. It usually opens Tuesday to Sunday into the evening, and its garden café is a weekend favourite with locals. It combines easily with the nearby Botanical Garden or the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.
Courtyard and pool.
A historic collection.
Under forest trees.
Rua Marquês de São Vicente 476, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro
Yes; the house usually opens Tuesday to Sunday into the evening.
