“Coloration Is Life!”: Sequence of Images Reveals the Significance of Colours and Shapes in Ruy Ohtake’s Structure

“I’m interested in creating shapes that surprise people, that are bold,” Ruy Ohtake used to say. With a career of over six decades and around 420 works built – almost three hundred only in São Paulo – Ohtake leaves a prolific and inspiring legacy to Brazilian architecture.

Besides São Paulo, his projects are spread over places as far away as Brasília, Mato Grosso do Sul and Rio de Janeiro, states where he designed and built residences, transport equipment, headquarters of cultural institutions, hotels, banks, sports arenas and corporate towers. In many of these, it is possible to recognize the architect’s resistance to leaning towards the straight line, one that offers no surprises, and the desire to thrill with its shapes and colors.

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“Color is life!” he would say with enthusiasm. Its buildings, in different scales and programs, attest to this: vibrant primary colors surprise, and sometimes shock, the eyes of those more used to monochrome. Examples of this are Redondinhos, a housing complex in Heliópolis community, and the headquarters of Instituto Tomie Ohtake, to mention just a few.

He often talked about the microsecond it takes for our minds to absorb a straight line or curve: with the straight line, he said, there is no surprise – we can easily predict where it will lead. But with the curve, our perception (and heart) is involved – it will turn this way, this way… where will it take us? — Paul Clemence on Ruy Ohtake

Clemence, an American architecture photographer with great interest in Brazilian architecture, shared with us another series of photographs, this time exploring the weight of colors and shapes in Ohtake’s buildings. Ruy’s work, comments the photographer, is a multiplicity of these microseconds, always taking us on a stimulating architectural journey.