TECTONIC EXPRESSION

The architecture essence lies in the structure poetic manifestation. Our proposal identifies the “structural unity” as the irreducible essence of architecture, as advocated by Kenneth Frampton. Thus, the Belo Horizonte Administrative Center was conceived primarily as a tectonic act, not a scenographic activity.

The tectonic act expressed here occurs in two moments, two separate material procedures: The first as the tectonics of solidity, where the compressed elements of reinforced concrete form the underground levels, foundation piles, pit and subway tunnel, in an articulated game embedded in the earth, which tends to darkness in a gesture of brutality. The second, opposite, is the tectonics of immateriality, where the lightness and clarity of steel and glass makes emerge the skyscraper, which although imposing in size, tends to dematerialization, light and air.

The imposing skyscraper is a central structural landmark in the Belo Horizonte municipality, at the end of its most important axis, Afonso Pena Avenue. Central element not only from the constructive point of view, but functional and mainly symbolic. A governmental landmark, the civic expression of a society that seeks a solid and mature democracy, represented here in the solid foundations of tectonic expression and architectural and urban complex rooted in the structural essence of unity. A virtuous paradigm in the construction of a new time.