Topography and Ideology: The Museum of Modern Art and El Helicoide de la Roca de Tarpeya

• In Event: Sueños de progreso, paisajes en ruinas: política, arquitectura y crisis (I)

Abstract

This paper compares the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Caracas, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, with El Helicoide de La Roca de Tarpeya also in Caracas: a shopping center intended for commercial, touristic and recreational use designed by Jorge Romero Gutiérrez, Pedro Neuberger and Dirk Bornhorst, whose form is adapted to the contours of the hill on which it is situated. Both are monumental constructions as well as visionary feats of technical daring which sought to help construct Caracas as a modern, socially progressive society. This paper argues that contrary to many Modern Movement buildings that ignored their surroundings and/or were erected on sites that had been cleared of existing structures to make room but also to signify renewal, El Helicoide and MAM exemplify the notion that these progressive ideals could be achieved through an intense interaction with the land. By modifying, inverting and or dynamically abstracting archetypal forms such as the pyramid or a ziggurat (originally themselves abstractions of mountains or hills), both buildings expressed the desire for societal change not by disregarding site conditions or abolishing existing structures but, on the contrary, by engaging in an intense dialogue with their sites.

Author

• Rene C Davids, U.C. Berkeley