1961
Santa Paula Yacht Club Nautical Pavilion, Sao Paulo
João Batista Vilanova Artigas, Carlos Cascaldi

Address: Avenida Robert Kennedy, Interlagos
City: Sao Paulo
State: Sao Paulo
Country: Brazil

A singular masterpiece with a high degree of structural and formal experimentation in a realtively small premise, with a simple program  resulting in a very creative solution.

The Santapaula Yacht Club is a retangular covered area (70 x 14m) defined by two longitudinal main prestressed concrete beams, defining two external balances of 10m, two spans of 10m and a central span of 30m.. The beams height variies from 0.65 to 2.25m at the support points. They are connected by transverse bemas, disposed at every meter, and reinforced by two intermediate longitudinal bemas; the transverse beams are placed in different heights, soa s to form a tripartite covering slab. The longitudinal façade beams widen down designingtriangular points with a folded detail, resting on four supports. There are no columns, and massive steel appliances, designed with for different shapes, articulate the contact with the basement walls. The upper structure is absolutely isostatic; a cover above the thick cyclopean concret walls that define the basement, which can be interpreted as a kind of exposed foundation.

Despite the SYCN Pavilion only two levels and relatively small space its design proposes varied vertical voids. The upper level resonate the covering tripartite rhythm, with a double height void in the center and two open rooms at north/south ends, connected by a west narrow covered stretch, along with small independent structures for facilities. The basement level is defined by a continuous thick cyclopean concrete wall; it stretches and folds defining, from north to south, a retaining wall, a quasi-double height wall and a closed compartment with tiny windows for storage. The floors connect by a discreet ladder between the retaining wall and storage space. Access to the lake’s beach from the north open area is granted by a uniquely designed prestressed concrete stair, that hangs from the retaining wall and “floats” above ground. Counterpointing the deep shadows day light floods by the absence of vertical closings and the two zenithal “faults” of the tripartite slab plus five “light cannons” with fiberglass lids.

The only closed compartment would be used for motors and sails storage, and the double height space would receive a metal frame structure with deep niches to storage very small boats, relieved from their sails (probably 420 Class type). But that facility was never constructed, neither the pavilion was ever used as Boat Garage. A concrete slab runaway stretches from the SYCNP to the lake, but has lost its purpose since the dam maximum level was lowed for security reasons in the 1970’s. At roughly the same moment the Santapaula Yacht Club declines and closes. Its premises remain abandoned and unused; its access is forbidden by its de facto caretakers, albeit it is not clear to whom does it legally belongs nowadays; and it remains in an almost ruinous state, 

The SYCNP rehabilitation is an urgent necessity. In any case, it should be considered as a piece of a complex puzzle including Interlagos neighborhood and Guarapiranga dam, meaning, as an urban, landscape, historical and architectural preservation site. The SYCN Pavilion was built as a non-autonomous annex and cannot be used as an independent building without damaging its intrinsic characteristics, It would be better to give back its original use as a belvedere, a “brutalist” gazebo, a pleasant shady place to appreciate the lake.

AC ARQUITETURA n.1, p.38, Jul. 1966; 

ZEIN, Ruth, A Arquitetura da Escola Paulista Brutalista 1953-1973, São Paulo e Porto Alegre, 2005, (Tese de Doutoramento) Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; p.145

CAD Design: Julio Beraldo Valente

Model: Carolina Ribeiro Boccato and Tatiane Yuri de Souza