Located along Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach, this museum interlaces linked floors for exhibition and display with floors for retail and restau- rants through an atrium defined by the vertical shear of those levels.

In the rectangular plan, social and exhibition programs are located between two linear bars of circulation, one interior and one exterior. A performance hall is positioned below grade, and an open-air cinema inhabits the roof. On the facade continuous exterior paths and elongated stairs extend the historic Roberto Burle Marx–designed street promenade up the side of the building, transgressing divisions between interior and exterior and allowing direct access to programs above the ground level.


The figures of this vertical circulation provide the building’s image. Along this vertical sequence a portion of the facade’s skin is composed of custom open masonry block, choreographing views out of the museum and allowing light into the museum. Through an intricate combination of incline, stack, vertical shear, and hole, this section amplifies the social and cultural vitality of Rio de Janeiro.