Brasilia and the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU): 60 years of meeting

An integral part of the architectural complex of the Court designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the building that houses the TCU restaurant was officially opened in 1998. The project was led by Niemeyer, Lelé, Fernando Andrade, and Adriana Lima. 

Confronted with the bold shapes preferred by the architects who designed the government palaces and ministry buildings in Brasilia, Athos Bulcão often opted for a certain unobtrusiveness when arranging spaces. That discretion is clearly on display in the Court restaurant. It is decorated with a tile panel entitled Labyrinth, which Bulcão himself made.

In the restaurant's circular layout, the colors, and geometric shapes of the tiles merge and embellish the setting by creating harmony and togetherness.

The gardens at the TCU headquarters were landscaped by Roberto Burle Marx. The garden layout features indoor and outdoor gardens, as well as water mirrors surrounding the building.

Burle Marx's desire to dialogue with Renato C. Alvarenga's architecture has produced landscaping and natural scenery that reflect the total harmony between the Court building and his gardens.

He mixes landscape, art, botany, and ecology while making plants the main feature.

A Minimalist from the 1960s, his gardens border on works of art. Even though the ideas are Modernist, his work is contemporary. As underlined by the geometric shapes and contrasts between the natural and the urban.  

The predominance of water surfaces provided by the water mirror creates features and views that attract the eye. A sense of balance comes from the curves, colors, shapes, and light.

As part of Lúcio Costa's urban project for Brasilia's Pilot Plan, the gardens were given protected status in July 2011. 

Work started on the latest TCU building in February 2014. This was to be the TCU educational center, the Serzedello Corrêa Institute (ISC). The project was the brain child of Court civil servants and employees and was named after the Court's founder.

The ISC has three roles: 1) organizational learning; 2) information and knowledge management; 3) and innovation and culture. One of the Institute's directives is to encourage the TCU to work more closely with the authorities, supervisory bodies, and the public, always with an eye to making administrative, cultural, and social improvements.

In an attempt to reduce its environmental impact, the project was based on sustainable construction practices. It received the grade A efficiency certificate that is reserved for model public buildings.

The sustainable solutions included installing efficient and economic lighting and cooling systems, recycling rainwater for the toilets and for irrigating the gardens, and using solar panels to heat water for the cloakrooms.

As an ecological offset measure, the TCU planted 7,300 native tree seedlings in one of the parks in Brasilia.

Officially opened in 2016, the new ISC headquarters is an architectural complex with two separate buildings. The first comprises an auditorium, classrooms, meeting rooms, and facilities for workshops and videoconferencing, as well as the ISC administrative and strategic offices and a branch of the Minister Ruben Rosa Library.

The second houses the TCU Cultural Center, made up of the Marcantonio Vilaça Cultural Area, the TCU Museum, the TCU Innovation Lab (CoLABi), and an auditorium.

The Cultural Center aims to use culture, arts, education, memory, and heritage to involve society more closely in the workings of the Federal Court of Accounts. The TCU Cultural Center's work promotes citizenship, works closely with the public, and prepares citizens to exercise social control.

In March 1970, the former minister Iberê Gilson set up the TCU Museum. However, it was not until 2004, when the former minister Valmir Campelo was in charge, that the TCU Museum got its museum structure and exhibition space at the Court headquarters. In September 2014, the TCU Musuem was re-named the Minister Guido Mondin Museum in honor of the man who had been the TCU President in 1978. Min Mondin is also remembered for his great love of the arts. A painter himself, he bequeathed several of his canvasses to the Court. 

When the Museum moved to its new home at the ISC, the structure for managing the archive became more important. A conservation and restoration room, a quarantine room, and three technical storage facilities for different types of materials are all managed by the museum team at the TCU Cultural Center.
Through its museum, the TCU seeks to safeguard its cultural treasures so as to preserve its institutional memory for the community and to inform society about the Court's role.

Marcantonio fought to enhance the visibility of Brazilian contemporary art abroad, making him, in the eyes of authors and art critics, the most important Brazilian art dealer of recent times. He acquired his first work of art while he was still a teenager: a wood cut by Gilvan Samico, a painter and engraver from Pernambuco. By the age of 29, he had amassed a collection of 500 works, mostly by Neo-concretists from Rio de Janeiro and artists from the 1980s. At the age of 37, he bid for a video by the British artist Hadrian Pigott and his collection was complete.

He would be seen carrying packages, catalogs, and even artworks under his arm. He stretched canvasses, he packed and unpacked collection items, and he assembled works and exhibitions. He was active in various artistic circles, organizing international fairs and coordinating with the big museums, directors, important collectors, and specialist editors, as well as being a key figure in the editorial market. He also invested in exhibitions by foreign artists in Brazil so that the Brazilian public would have access to contemporary art from around the world.

Despite his constant trips abroad, he remained incredibly busy in Brazil. On January 1, 2000, Marcantonio Vilaça died at the early age of 37 in Recife, a city that had always been close to his heart.

Set up in 2003, while the former minister Valmir Campelo was in charge, the Marcantonio Vilaça Cultural Space is a center for promoting contemporary visual art through analysis and education. The gallery was set up as a tribute to Marcantonio, who had been a key figure in the history of art in Brazil.

Fragments from the speech at the official opening of the Marcantonio Vilaça Gallery.

The space available at the Institute's new headquarters will bring benefits not just for the civil servants working at TCU but for all government agencies and society at large. Since the new headquarters were opened, thousands of people registered to take part in the educational and cultural activities being promoted and sponsored by the ISC.