• Originally published in Portuguese (Brazil) by Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS) on August 18, 2015.
    Translated into English in November 2025 for reference and archival purposes.
     
     
  • Inside the Collection, Gautherot and Pedregulho
    All photographs by Marcel Gautherot, Instituto Moreira Salles Collection.

    Inside the Collection

    Gautherot and Pedregulho

     

    Designed by Affonso Eduardo Reidy, the Pedregulho housing complex in São Cristóvão, in the northern zone of Rio de Janeiro, stands as a landmark of Brazilian architecture. Its construction was documented by photographer Marcel Gautherot (1910–1996), for whom architecture was one of his favorite subjects—among the many he masterfully explored throughout his life. “Someone who doesn’t understand architecture cannot take a good photograph,” he once declared. The collection of the French-born artist who settled in Brazil is now held by the Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS).

     

    Released in August, Pedregulho – O sonho pioneiro da habitação popular no Brasil (Edições de Janeiro), written by architect Alfredo Britto, with additional texts by architect Flávia Brito do Nascimento and journalist Renato Lemos, features photographs by Gautherot that illustrate the building’s history. Some of these images are reproduced on this page.

  • The Pedregulho complex was partially inaugurated in 1950, with construction continuing into the 1960s. The site includes panels by Candido...

    All photographs by Marcel Gautherot, Instituto Moreira Salles Collection.

    The Pedregulho complex was partially inaugurated in 1950, with construction continuing into the 1960s. The site includes panels by Candido Portinari and a landscape design by Burle Marx. It embodied a concept of public housing that emphasized well-being and proximity to workplaces. In the early 1960s, then-governor Carlos Lacerda dismantled the Department of Public Housing and shifted focus toward developments located in distant neighborhoods. These ultimately became favelized, such as Cidade de Deus and Vila Kennedy.

     

    The government’s lack of interest in Pedregulho led to its deterioration and loss of original character. In recent years, following its designation as a state heritage site, a restoration process of Reidy’s original plan began. As shown in the book, this work is now nearly complete, documented in recent photographs by Cesar Barreto and Felipe Varanda.

    See below some of the photographs taken around 1951 by Marcel Gautherot during the construction of Pedregulho.