Niterói Contemporary Art Museum

The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói - MAC) is situated in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is one of the city’s main landmarks. It was completed in 1996.

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer with the assistance of structural engineer Bruno Contarini, who had worked with Niemeyer on earlier projects, the MAC-Niterói is 16 meters high; its cupola has a diameter of 50 metres with three floors. The museum projects itself over Boa Viagem (“Bon Voyage,” “Good Journey”), the 817-square metre reflecting pool that surrounds the cylindrical base “like a flower,” in the words of Niemeyer.

A wide access slope leads to a Hall of Expositions, which has a capacity for sixty people. Two doors lead to the viewing gallery, through which can be seen the Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, and Sugarloaf Mountain. The saucer-shaped modernist structure, which has been likened to a UFO, is set on a cliffside, at the bottom of which is a beach. In the film Oscar Niemeyer, an architect committed to his century[1], Niemeyer is seen flying over Rio de Janeiro in a UFO which then lands on the site, suggesting this to be the origin of the museum.

The magic continues inside with an observation gallery following a band of picture windows around the outside circumference, inviting patrons to gaze on Rio, the Sugarloaf, Guanabara Bay, and the city of Niterói itself. As a gallery, however, the museum has drawbacks. Circular buildings are inherently difficult to make functional. Still, curators do their best, bringing in a constantly changing selection of the best of Brazilian contemporary art (think abstract sculpture, textiles, and painting). Even so, one can't help thinking the best piece of work on display is the building itself.