Abstract:
The tile, as a design object and architectural piece, has been undergoing significant
changes and adaptations along the last five centuries in Portugal and Brazil. As a material
support for countless creations, the tile tells a little about the history of both countries through
its trajectory, mainly in the context of the decorative arts, extending its range for new
interpretation and use. This project aims to uncover a decorative element side of the tile,
breaking the ordinary look of coating ceramic material through the design project of a twentieth
century elite house. This private property, now known as Museu do Açude, belonged to the
entrepreneur, collector and Art sponsor Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya, a remarkable
personality and important person for the society of the first half of twentieth century in Rio de
Janeiro. The house holds one of the biggest Portuguese tile collections from centuries 17th and
18 th, therefore, considered a real tile museum. Castro Maya, as he was known, gave a
neocolonial decorating approach, style movement in vogue at the time, to his cottage while
keeping the harmony with the colonial style given by the Tijucas forest that surrounds the
museum. The impeccable collection of Portuguese tiles panels, built by pieces collected
between the decades of 1920 and 1940 with the goal of keeping a consist unit between the house
spaces, has repurposed the tile in an extraordinary way, both inside and outside the house
museum. Castro Maia left a mark on the transformation of style and way of living on the first
half of the twentieth century, which impresses all visitor until today.
