Abstract:
The old Estação de Hidroaviões of Santos Dumont Airport is a building that has become an
exponent of modern Brazilian architecture and a constitutive element of the historical memory
of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, as well as in the history of national aviation. It was built in the
30's, at the edge of Baia de Guanabara which is a postcard of the Rio de Janeiro city. The
material used for the grounding of this site was the dismantling of the Morro do Castelo, a
city's foundation landmark in 1565. The government held a contest to choose the architectural
design of the building that was built on this site; the chosen was the one of the Architect Attilio
Correia Lima, forerunner of the modern architecture in Brazil, becoming the first airport to
conduct commercial flights in the country. In 1942 the seaplanes fall into disuse and the
building falls into ostracism; being claimed by the Ministry of Aeronautics, the building is
now used as a club. With the construction of automotive accessibility roads, the urban project
of the government of the city of Rio de Janeiro provides the demolition of the building
mobilizing architects for its overturning. After its overturning in the 1980s, the Ministry of
Aeronautics indicated this building to be the Instituto Histórico-Cultural da Aeronáutica –
INCAER head office in order to preserve the history of civil and military aviation and enhance
this building. For all this representativeness we intend to propose to INCAER the creation of
a memory center which values the historical building and at the same time enables its function
for the society.
