Parque Maria Cândida Pareto — Humaitá, Rio de Janeiro

About the building

The Parque Maria Cândida Pareto climbs the hillside off Rua Pinheiro Guimarães 149, on the slope between Humaitá and Botafogo. It is a single condominium of 60 houses arranged on 11 stepped levels that follow the terrain — 'stacked streets' linked by internal walkways and inclined elevators rather than a conventional tower core. Seen from below, the terraced massing reads like an informal settlement, which was exactly the architect's point.

The houses are large — typically three to four bedrooms with terraces — and the complex runs gated security around the clock. It trades on privacy and views over the Zona Sul; units rarely come to market and are held mostly by long-term owner families.

Address: Rua Pinheiro Guimarães 149, Humaitá, Rio de Janeiro

History

The complex was designed by Sérgio Bernardes, one of the major names of Brazilian modern architecture, and completed in 1978 by the now-defunct developer Goldfeld. Bernardes had spent the 1960s arguing that terraced, hillside-hugging housing of this type could be a model for re-urbanizing Rio's favelas; the idea never advanced with the public authorities, and this condominium became the built demonstration of it — as private market housing.

In recent years the project has had a second life in the press and on social media as the 'luxury favela', a shorthand for how its favela-inspired form ended up housing some of Humaitá's most valuable homes.