Flamengo Park

Brief Information

Flamengo Park stands on land that did not exist before: it was reclaimed from Guanabara Bay. Rock from leveled hills was dumped into the water, forming a long stone spit, separating a lagoon and the sandy strip of Flamengo Beach, and then this area was filled in. As a result, the park reads not as an ordinary green area by the shore, but as an artificially assembled strip between the city, roads, and water.

In its present form, the park opened in 1965 and stretches from Santos Dumont Airport to the beginning of Botafogo Beach. At first, this zone was linked to Rio’s transport plan: high-speed roads between the city center and the South Zone were meant to operate here. The idea of a large park beside the roads changed the meaning of the place: sports grounds, museums, monuments, beaches, and Burle Marx’s landscape with native plants appeared on the landfill.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to compare two parts of the park. In Glória, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Monument to the Dead of World War II, Marina da Glória, memorials, a concert hall, and the small Glória Beach are all close together. In Flamengo, the set is different: sports grounds, the Carmen Miranda Museum, Flamengo Beach, and Avenida Nações Unidas. A small breakwater between the parts helps the park be read as a combination of different functions, rather than as a single garden of one type.

Individual details show how the park coexists with the roads. The bicycle path runs between the roadway and Flamengo Beach and extends through the entire park from north to south, connecting the South Zone with the center. Gently curved pedestrian bridges cross over the expressways to connect the park with the beach. The Japanese pavilion, puppet theater, amphitheater, and bandstand recall that Reidy designed not only roads and open fields here, but also small structures for everyday use.