Arquitetura e procedimentos de projeto nos prédios hospitalares do escritório Rino Levi Arquitetos Associados 1944-1965

Abstract

Rino Levi, with his Italian training and the influence from the architetto integralle , intervenes with his technical and artistic competence in the building and in the modern city, combining art, architecture and technique. That is, while the technique involved in the architectural making advances a central issue to Levi, the principles and laws that govern it (present in the classical values of proportion and rhythm) remain. Therefore, the project propositions change, but the way to tackle them is similar, resulting in a set of procedures that structures the architectural practice and also values the collaboration of experts and the architect's role as the coordinator of the design process. This is the conceptual framework from which Rino Levi addresses the hospital theme, designing a total of twenty hospitals projects in Brazil and Venezuela, of which nine were built. These projects are significant for the discussion of Rino Levi s projects and trajectory, from the design procedures perspective. In this sense, the organization of volumes, based on the needs of the program and on the flowchart, is constant. This guideline can be seen in different fronts: the volumetric composition; the flexibility of the plans, through an independent structure and modulation; the facades treatment; the building's relationship with the plot and the city, as evidenced by the integration between interior and exterior and the close relationship with the site and nature; the representation procedures, which are evident in the design stages, in the instruments used and in the coordination of professionals and projects. Based on the consultation of primary source documents, this work takes a look at Rino Levi s hospital projects, between 1945 and 1965. We also give a brief overview on works about the architect, which takes in consideration the diversity of reading keys of his work and we also analyze his hospital projects from the point of view of the approaches focused on design procedures, grouping them around relevant samples. In his project of the Maternidade da Universidade de São Paulo (1944-1953), Rino Levi innovates the architectural environment when he sets the spatial proposal through the establishment of functional volumes. The Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (1958-1960) reveals a greater compression of the functional volumes. The Hospital Geral in Maiquetia (1959) differs by its radical segregation of traffic and usage volumes, whereas the Psychiatric Hospital of Rio Claro (1962) evolves into forming different sets of volumes and their hierarchy among themselves and in relation to marquees that connect them, forming a complex that incorporates the urban scale. Rino Levi reaches with his work a great clarity and thought unit, which starts at the whole architect and reaches a number of design procedures. This thought unity can be seen in his hospital buildings, where it can also be seen the evolution of Rino Levi's work in the democratic period, especially clear the four selected buildings. This work, thus, contributes to assess the real importance of this architect for the Brazilian modern architecture.