Inaugurated in 1952, the residential complex known as Minhocão took up the hillside where one of the tunnels of the Lagoa-Barra highway system now stands. That was the site of the Parque Proletário da Gávea, created by the city government under mayor Henrique Dodsworth in 1942, with 955 shacks housing 5,262 people, which by the early 1950s had become deteriorated and unsanitary. The project was grandiose and was built by the Department of Public Housing (Departamento de Habitação Popular) to meet the needs of many city hall employees, who occupied the favela areas of Lagoa and Rocinha and could no longer make use of the Parque Proletário. Five apartment blocks were planned, totaling 748 units, complete with collective urban facilities. Only one block was built, still lacking urban facilities, and it occupied part of the upper hillside.
Image description: The image is a photograph of a housing complex called "Conjunto Residencial Marquês de São Vicente (Minhocão)". The view shows a curved building with many apartments, located in an urban setting. On the left side, there are green trees and a wall with colorful graffiti. In the center, a person walks along the sidewalk. On the right, there is a large building with balconies and windows. The sky is blue with a few clouds.Image taken from the blog Reidy, the Construction of Utopia
The architect behind the Minhocão project was Affonso Reidy, who gave the block a curved design very similar to that of the Pedregulho Complex. The building built expressed the idea of a city within a building, with its corridor-streets, breaking with the residents' isolation and confronting them with the challenge of collective living. It thus replaced traditional ways of thinking about public housing with attention to aesthetics and building typology, heralding freedom and autonomy. Even with the tunnel running through it, it is possible to notice the strength of the modernist innovations in the block.
Image description: The image is a black-and-white photograph. In the foreground, we see a man in a light-colored suit, wearing glasses and a tie. He is smiling and looking to the right. In the background, there are modern metallic and architectural structures, possibly part of the Marquês de São Vicente Residential Complex, known as Minhocão.Affonso Reidy designed the Minhocão, opened in 1952 in Gávea. Unknown photographer
