Novos rumos de uma obra marginal: escalonamentos e ângulos irregulares na obra de Acácio Gil Borsoi

Between 1976 and 1977 there was a series of discussions promoted by Rio de Janeiro’s IAB that intended to evaluate the architectural production after the construction of the new federal capital and guide the possible paths to be followed. In his final speech, during the event, Joaquim Guedes declared, “I think we should recover in Brazilian schools a respect for reality and freedom that every student and every architect have, in particular the young ones, for inventing new paths”. In this event, Artigas claimed the maintenance of a glorious past, still marked by Baroque curves and nature from Rio de Janeiro; Guedes asked us to look in the opposite direction, inserted new characters as Siza or Gregotti and mentioned others that were always left out of our history, such as Hoffman or Steiner. He warned of a work that at the time had been growing in the country, "marginal work [...] in Ceara [...] with Vital; Borsoi in Recife; and especially in Bahia, with Assis Reis" . The architect Acacio Gil Borsoi, which Guedes noted, was born in Rio de Janeiro, and based in Recife since 1953, acted in Joao Pessoa from 1954, possibly, until 1972 . Among the works carried out in the capital of Paraiba, eight houses stand up. All these houses illustrate, in the early years, the influence of Rio de Janeiro´s modern architecture and, insofar as the 1960s progressed, the change of direction taken by the architect. This new course was marked, among other features, by the exposure of uncoated materials, building elements and structural system. In 1968 , Austregesilo de Freitas, owner of a residence designed by Borsoi, indicated the architect to his friend, the businessman Antonio de Padua, who owned a generous plot of land of 3,116 square meters, in the new district of Miramar, which was occupied as the Epitacio Pessoa Avenue unfolded from the center toward the coast. House Antonio de Padua shows, inside Borsoi’s body of work, the key moment of change in direction mentioned above. However, what in an inattentive analysis would lead to a simplified understanding - the course deviation between the strands from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo - in fact, reveals a complex network of connections that convert it into an elastic building, from the point of view of its references and projective precedents. This text is based on a careful analysis of the House Antonio de Padua, and tries to understand its specificity, to explore possible connections to other works from late 1960s, such as those of important architects on the international scene at the time, as Stirling and Aalto, or even contemporary Brazilian architects, such as Liliana and Joaquim Guedes. The latter, in the late 1970s had already shown interest in Borsoi’s work.