Oi Futuro is a space of convergence between telecommunications’ past and present. The original building was built in 1918 to host the antique telecommunications company’s Beira-Mar Station. In 1981 it was transformed into the Telephone Museum, which exposed Brazil’s telephone history. The museum diversified its action in 1997 and established itself as a vital cultural center in Rio de Janeiro, when it started to host concerts, theater plays, and art exhibits. In 2000, the Telephone Museum was revitalized through an innovative transformation that changed its structure, activities, and ambient.
The great challenge was to adequate the available space to the museum, artistic, and cultural needs, along with the innumerous technological possibilities. A public contest was held by the Brazilian Institute of Architects, which defined the physical structure that would transform the antique Telemar Cultural Center into the current Oi Futuro. Signed by Oficina dos Arquitetos, the winning project was contemplated by a simple but broad concept: Instead of limits, spatial sensations…

...Temporal Spaces: Facades and columns from the original 1918 building are preserved and linked with the new facade, where the sound of velocity is represented by sheds of light which sweep space through fiber optics. Convergence between past, present and future.

...Physical Spaces: By taking advantage of usable areas between the building’s floors, the four original levels were transformed into eight. Light barriers, translucent or transparent glass walls, and inexistent walls instead of doors…it all makes for imprecise, adjustable, and amplifying areas. Infinity is the result of such convergence between art and technology and it’s exactly the physical and temporal convergences that make Oi Futuro establish itself as a referential actor in the areas of culture, art, education and citizenship.