When Niemeyer left Brazil, his offices trashed in the 1964 military coup, he moved to Paris where he lived for 20 years. The most significant of the three buildings there is the French Communist Party HQ which he designed in part with Jean Prove. Throughout his long life he was prolific, with over 500 buildings to his name. But how many of them can you just walk in to and be a part of?

I was delighted to experience Niemeyer's gracious curves and generosity of space in Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira.  The casino and hotel, built in 1966, rarely appears on Niemeyer’s project lists and his architecture is not widely promoted by the hotel or the island.

The Niemeyer Casino

In 1965 the Barretto Family bought a crumbling Funchal Casino with the intention of developing an hotel. A conversation over dinner between the Barrettos and a Brazilian diplomat planted the idea of commissioning Oscar Niemeyer. Around that time, Niemeyer was visiting another Brazilian exiled in Portugal - the former President. A succession of events quickly led to the Casino Park Hotel. Niemeyer collaborated on the project with the Portuguese architect Viana de Lima; technical engineering calculations were made in Lisbon at the Instituto Superior Tecnico by Madeira Costa with Daciano Costa overseeing the interiors.

Model and display invites guests to learn about the architect and his architecture

Relative to the scale and aesthetic of Madeira the architecture must have appeared radical. Niemeyer was aware of the challenge and wrote:

'Designing an hotel on the island of Madeira offers a series of fundamental problems. First, the characteristics of the place, the island's beauty, it's picturesque and welcoming aspect, which must be protected. Secondly, the problems that causes, problems of quality, scale, visibility etc. In my opinion, these are such important problems that in writing this explanation I feel obliged to address them, warning the local authorities of the need to establish measures to protect the landscape.'

The spiral staircase

Twenty years later the Casino Park went up for sale to be bought by the Pestana Family.

Oscar Niemeyer wire sculpture: Mulher lV. one of several sculptures in the lobby.

Funchal locals told me there was talk of demolition - whether this is true and who wanted to demolish I have not researched. The good news is that Portugal’s only Oscar Niemeyer building survives, it is well maintained and easily accessible and worth having a drink in one of the two outside bars. (The food's not worthy of an evening meal)

A palatial 3,500 sq meters from the reception to the restaurant

The first level of the hotel is a dedicated conference floor with its own outside terrace and walkway to the Casino. Currently it looks unused with conferences pushed towards the Casino and the Funchal Conference Centre. If only Madeira was easily accessible by international flights it would be a great location for a WAF.

The hotel and the business level deck.

Musings from my life in photography and architecture ©Lynne Bryant
All photographs ©Richard & Lynne Bryant. They may not be downloaded, scraped or copied in anyway without prior permission from Richard Bryant and negotiation of a licence.