Sampodromo, 40 years old: Compare Niemeyer's project drawings with modern photographs of Sapukai | Carnival 2024 in Rio de Janeiro

in 1983Architect and urban planner Oscar Niemeyer handed over his project to the Marquês de Sapucaí Sambadrome. You Drawings provided to the press at the time revealed features that can still be seen on the Avenida (Move photos from this report to “Before and After”).

After passing through four other venues in central Rio (Praça

However, the structure was temporary, and the city council even conducted weight tests using oil drums in the stands. In 1983, work began on the fixed structure.

Some things have changed over the decades at the Sambadrome. In an interview conducted with him at the time, Niemeyer (1907 – 2012) explained this His idea was that the spectator part of the street floor would be occupied by people.

“The main idea was to bring the Carnival back to the people. That everyone would have access to the ground floor, to the squares that people had planned, so that the stands and boxes were suspended elements, not damaging this 'popular aspect, which in my opinion was the most important,'” The architect said in an interview with Globo TV in 1983.

What remains impressive is the time in which the work was completed: 4 months. It was announced in September 83 by then Governor Lionel Brizzola.

“The enthusiasm with which they did it, it was done in 4 months, a project that suddenly appeared, a decision made by 3 crazy people, right? D'Arcy Ribeiro, Leonal Brizola and Oscar give their approval,” he joked in an interview with Jornal Hogi, the architect Paulo Niemeyer, Oscar's grandson, recalls. Also the then Lieutenant Governor, Darcy Ribeiro, for whom the sambadrome was named.