Possibilities of an elastic patio, typological experiments in the design of brazilian houses

Possibilities of an elastic patio Typological experiments in the design of Brazilian houses

AndrĂŠ Vitor da Fonseca Passos

Possibilities of an elastic patio Typological experiments in the design of brazilian houses

university campus program academic year author career starting date thesis type supervisor co-supervisor text revision

Politecnico Milano Polo Territoriale di Mantova MSc in Architectural Design and History 2018 - 2019 Andre Vitor Joao da Fonseca Passos 2017 Research Angelo Lorenzi Sebastiano Marconcini Stela Marcia de Oliveira

“I have the impression that what should matter for architects is the relation between what is inside and what is outside, as if we were always building the city in small portions.

This interests me more than architecture as a beautiful object that could be placed anywhere (…) what architecture seeks is the creation of emptiness” Paulo Mendes da Rocha, 2013

English abstract

The starting point of this master thesis is the relevance of the patio-house typology for contemporary architecture. It is acknowledged that the history of architecture shows that this type is very flexible since it was used in different continents, by different cultures and adapted to different needs as an additive process. This condition allowed architects to make various combinations with other typologies and test its flexibility.

Therefore, the work aims to study the architecture resulting from these experiments and understand how the adaptations of the patio show a conscious effort regarding the relation between architecture and landscape. We have also sought to understand how the measure to which the patio is modified can affect the loss of its essence. To do so, the research will survey and compare the houses with patios designed by architects from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, trying to understand how their interpretation of very different landscapes led to varied results, despite their common use of patios. The analysis also proposes an understanding of the instruments capable of manipulating the flexibility of the patio and how it can be explored today.

Italian abstract

Il punto di partenza di questa tesi di laurea è la rilevanza del tipo della casa a patio per l’architettura contemporanea. La storia dell’architettura dimostra come questa tipologia sia molto flessibile visto che è stata utilizzata in diversi continenti e da culture diverse, adattandosi alle differenti esigenze come un processo additivo. Questa condizione ha permesso agli architetti di provare varie combinazioni con altre tipologie e testarne la flessibilità. Dunque, il lavoro si propone di studiare l’architettura risultante da questi esperimenti e capire come gli adattamenti del patio mostrino uno sforzo consapevole riguardante il rapporto tra architettura e paesaggio. Si è anche cercato di capire come la misura in cui viene modificato il patio possa influire sulla perdita della sua essenza. Per fare ciò, la ricerca esamina e confronta le case a patio progettate dagli architetti di Rio de Janeiro e San Paolo, cercando di comprendere come la loro interpretazione di paesaggi molto diversi abbia portato a risultati differenti, nonostante il loro uso comune dei patii. L’analisi propone anche una migliore comprensione degli strumenti in grado di manipolare la flessibilità del patio e di come quest’ultimo possa essere interpretato oggi.

Index

10

Introduction

16 23 28 36

1. The patio-house in context The patio, the house and the public space The patio as interface between interior and exterior Experiments of the Modernism Articulation instruments

40 50 60 70 78 84 96 102 108 114 124 134

2. The Modern patio in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Modernity and tradition, shade and view: The patio in Rio de Janeiro Hungria de Machado House, Lucio Costa (1942) Paes de Carvalho House, Lucio Costa (1944) Lima Padua House, Oscar Niemeyer (1943) Rothschild House, Oscar Niemeyer (1962) Moreira Salles House, Olavo Redig de Campos (1948-51) Juggling interiority and exteriority, a common denominator

142

Turning to the interior, the response of Sao Paulo D’Estefani House, Vilanova Artigas and Carlos Cascaldi (1950) Taques Bittencourt House, Vilanova Artigas (1959) Americano House Oswaldo Bratke (1953) Delgado Perez House, Rino Levi, Roberto Cerqueira CÊsar and Roberto de Carvalho Franco (1958) King House, Paulo Mendes da Rocha (1972-74)

152

The patio as the threshold between house and landscape

3. The patio for a Modernism set in motion Passing the baton, the legacy of the Brazilian Modern Movement House in Ribeirao Preto, SPBR + MMBB (2001) House and salon in Orlandia, SPBR (2012) ML House, Bernardes + Jacobsen (2010) Bela Vista House, Bernardes Arquitetura (2018)

156 166 174 182 190

Final considerations: possibilities of an elastic patio

202

Bibliography Original quotations List of illustrations Biographical notes

208 218 222 238

Acknowledgements

240

Introduction

1

Anton Capitel, La arquitectura del patio (Barcelona: Gustavo Gilli, 2005), 14-15.

The patio-house typology is known to have a fundamental importance in the history of architecture. The archetype has been largely used throughout history, surpassing cultural and climatic differences and suitably organizing the residential program. Along with this capacity, it has also shown an elasticity regarding the use of its traditional shapes. Even though the concept of a complete and regular patio-house might exist, it is not necessarily mandatory that an architecture obeys entirely these rules in order to embody the essence of this typology (1).

This condition creates an opportunity to explore the limits of this type. Nonetheless, the fundamental, but also ambiguous, characteristic of this spatial arrangement has always remained: the building opens to a roofless or outdoor area which is usually dedicated to introspection and privacy. Consequently, the role of the patio-house in architecture has its grounds in the manipulation of the interaction between interior and exterior spaces.

The objective of this thesis is to reflect upon the spatial possibilities of this typological system and its current importance.

More accurately, it will investigate how the manipulation of the traditional shape of the patio may enhance the spatial quality of a house and the complexity between its interior and exterior spaces. Since the traditional disposition of the patio is to refuse the outside and turn to the interior, what would happen if its interior garden were slightly exposed or repositioned? Moreover, to which degree might the patio be modified without losing some of its most important virtues? To which degree would the interaction between interior and exterior be altered?

To do so, the research proposes to investigate the design 10

FIG 1

Hungria de Machado House, interior patio.

11

of patio-houses conceived by architects in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The choice is based on the very distinctive spatial complexity present in the work of Brazilian architects. As we’ll see, the growth of this quality in Brazilian projects is strongly related to the experiments of the Modern Movement; so, this research aims to understand how this typology was interpreted back then and how it influences the projects of today.

São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are nowadays the most populous cities in Brazil and they have concentrated for some time the most significant architectural production of the country. It should be mentioned that there are in fact relevant architectural production in other cities, but the RJ / SP axis has special importance for being the home of what came to be known as the main schools of Brazilian Modern architecture: the Escola Carioca and the Escola Paulista.

This thesis is based on the hypothesis that these schools are both especially dedicated to explore the relation between architecture and landscape, but in different manners. During their developments, the Paulistas had to deal with an unbridled urban sprawl that certainly damaged the metropolitan environment of São Paulo, while the Cariocas were keen to emphasize in their projects the natural scenery of Rio de Janeiro. In order to deal with each of these contexts, the patio was a key element for some of the houses developed at that time and it can be an accurate instrument to assess how the architects understood the relation between the building and its surroundings.

Therefore, the theme typology of this thesis confirms itself as an appropriate model to investigate how these two schools understand the complex relation between interior and exterior spaces. Moreover, the analysis of the use of patios exclusively in houses allows a necessary restriction of scale for an accurate identification of similarities and divergences. On the 12

other hand, the research will make use of varied contexts which will provide the opportunity to see how the patio may respond differently to diverse backgrounds (houses in the field, different urban contexts, by the sea, etc.).

Hence, with this repertory of patio-houses, we will able not only to test the flexibility and elasticity of the patio, but also how it can be seen as an interface between interior and exterior.

The different contexts offered by the case studies will bring the necessary diversity to comprehend the variety of shapes that the patio can have. Additionally, it will bring to light the interest of each architect regarding the interiority and exteriority of the house, depending on the way they deal with the spatial attributes of this typology.

Finally, the research will be divided into three parts: the first will be dedicated to the understanding of the patiohouse typology; its origins, main characteristics, examples and paradigms. The second will explore the use of this archetype in Brazilian Modern architecture. The third will investigate how the characteristics of the use of patio-houses in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista are still present in the contemporaneity, organizing some reoccurrences and divergencies of the case-studies.

13

Chapter 1: The patio-house in context

Chapter 1: The patio-house in context

The patio, the house and the public space

FIG 2

Fredensborg Houses, by Jørn Utzon (previous page) 2

Oxford Dictionary of English, Version 2.3.0 (203.16.12).

As a methodological strategy, the research starts contemplating the definition of the word patio. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines it as follows: “noun (plural patios) A paved outdoor area adjoining a house: the dining room looks out to a small patio | [as modifier]: a patio table and chairs. - a roofless inner courtyard in a Spanish or Spanish-American house” (2).

Departing from this definition, we might complexify what a patio is and, consequently, underline the specific role it has in a house.

Certainly, the patio is not merely an unbuilt area inside a constructed volume. As we’ll be able to examine in this chapter; in order to be classified as such, this element should follow some specific rules. The patio is a reserved space that brings part of the exterior to the interior, organizing the complexity of the architecture around itself. As a result, it becomes a central open space in contact with the outside, without entirely exposing the intimacy of the house. Therefore, this space stablishes a very elegant and subtle relation between interior and exterior.

The uniform acceptance of the oriental patio-house by the occident was due to four factors. Firstly, there was a psychological aspect: an introspective architecture provided privacy to the inhabitants. Secondly, there was an economical reason: the defensive walls around ancient cities restricted the amount of land available for building houses. Third, the climatic conditions: the patio-house was initially attached to other houses (which provided shade to the streets) and the use of 16

water or plants in the patio created a microclimate in the house.

Forth, there was a religious connotation: the open interior can be compared to the man’s image of paradise or oasis in the wilderness (3).

In addition, it is common to see in ancient examples the entrance shifted from the axis of the patio. This decision ensures the privacy of the interior garden, protecting the patio from the prying eyes of strangers. Therefore, there isn’t just an important relation between patio and house, but also a relation between house, patio and public space. In order to explore this exchange, we will consider three ancient examples of the patiohouses: the Sumerian, the Greek and the Roman.

In the southern part of the historical area called Mesopotamia; between the river Euphrates and Tigris, the Sumerian civilization grew around 3500 B.C. The lack of a local stone or timber gave no option to this population other than developing a specific building technique. The cities were fortified by defensive walls and the houses were based on brick masonry and columns, creating an urban tissue characterized by narrow streets that protected the inhabitants from the high temperatures. The Sumerians depended on agricultural production of neighboring communities to thrive, so most of the Sumerian cities were surrounded by many agrarian villages.

Among those cities, it is believed by Schoenauer that Ur shows the most accurate information about the Sumerian House. Even though the specificities of the design depended on their position in the urban context, the urban house of Ur had some recurrent characteristics that can be identified in the most publicized example: No. 3 Gay Street.

The plan of the house was organized around a central patio, all rooms faced this interior space. It was not possible to considerably open the house to the outside due to the 17

3

Norbert Schoenauer, 6,000 Years of Housing (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003), 95.

The patio-house in context

4

Schoenauer, 6,000 Years of Housing, 97-98

urban context and, for climatic reasons, there was no reason to. Consequently, the only direct to the public space was the entrance door.

Through the front door, the first area of the house was a vestibule. The position of this room between the entrance and the court blocked the view of the public to the intimate space of the house. From the patio, a person could visit the other rooms on the ground floor such as kitchen, reception, staircase (usually near the entrance) and auxiliary household rooms. In two-story houses, the second floor was reserved for bedrooms and the circulation around the patio was made on a small balcony. In humbler homes, the reception was also used as bedroom.

Therefore, the house was organized based on the presence of a core: the open space inside the building. This type of organization proved to be fit for different civilizations and led to the creation of the classic type of the patio-house: the Greek peristyle house, as a result of this historical additive process (4).

Archeological and literary findings show that the Greek peristyle house is a result of the evolution of the indigenous “megaron� (big rectangular room characterized by the presence of columns and a fireplace). Eventually, this element was transformed into the classical shape of the patio. In the urban context, this room became a patio surrounded by colonnades that structured the plan of the Greek patio-house. Seen from the outside, the houses were very modest since the principle of the peristyle made the use of windows to the outside unnecessary.

The design of the patio created an area in which the inhabitants could carry out many domestic activities in contact with the outside. The organization of the plan ensured the intimacy of the space, either positioning the entrance out of the axis of the patio or screening it with a protective masonry 18

Chapter 1

FIG 3

House of Ur, plan and view.

19

The patio-house in context

5

Schoenauer, 6,000 Years of Housing, 97-98 6

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 10-14 7

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 10-14

wall called herkos, similarly to the Sumerian House. Another common characteristic was the patio colonnade, even though the usual Greek house was single-story, the two-story houses had a two-tier colonnade comparable to the House of Ur. The Greek patio-house plan reflected the domestic dynamics of a Greek family. As a general scheme, the house was zoned by day-time or night-time activities and men’s and women’s sections.

“The interior arrangement was only visible from within the dwelling and reflected day-to-day activities as well as the structure of the family inhabiting it. It was a zoned dwelling that separated day-time activities from nighttime activities and the women’s quarters from those used by the men” (5).

According to Anton Capitel (6); if we consider two Greek houses from Delos (between III and II B.C.), we’ll be able to recognize that the patio of the Greek house was also a circulation instrument. In the one to the left (with three facades facing the street), the patio seems to have a stronger role in the organization of the plan: it’s protected by the hall after the entrance and it’s a regular square with nine columns surrounded by walls that became very irregular due to the urban context. The circulation was made mainly around the patio, by the galleries, not through the patio. That’s the reason why the house on the right has its entrance flanked.

The House XXIII of Priene (end of IX B.C.) is another example of a radical decision towards the position of the entrance. This very particular example gives us some important guidelines to understand what a patio consists of. This patio is not nearly regular; therefore, it suggests some minimal requirements for that definition. It is essentially an open, interior and private space. This type embodies the meaning of the word safety, the house opens itself to the exterior, but no one can reach it (7).

20

Chapter 1 The development of the peristyle was very important for the existence of the Domus, the Roman patio-house. The domus is the result of a combination between the Etruscan atriumhouse and the Greek peristyle house. The Etruscan house was characterized by an axial plan, the central axis organized the

FIG 4

Plan of houses in Delos.

FIG 5

Plan of House in Prienne.

21

The patio-house in context position of entrance, atrium, tablinum and hortus. An axial arrangement provided a clear perspective of these spaces. As a result of this combination, the Domus had two patios: the atrium and the peristyle (or hortus, depending on the size of the house). The first was dedicated to the social part of the house and the second to the private areas. From the outside, it had a very simple facade with few openings. This system allowed the Romans to combine different dwellings to create big urban blocks.

The building was usually single-story and the interior was fully decorated. The courtyards were usually adorned with fountains, statues and vases. An important element for this house was the tablinum because it was the threshold between the two patios. In some cases, it was possible to see the peristyle from the entrance; something that would be considered at least uncommon in the other two examples.

If the Sumerian House and the Domus were compared, one might conclude that the patio of the former is more private due to its relation of the entrance. However, the latter brings

FIG 6

Plan of houses in Pompeii.

22

Chapter 1 another aspect to our discussion: the distance between the entrance and patio. Even if the strong axis of the Domus might be more revealing, the house is very longitudinal which helps the patio to protect itself from prying eyes. Moreover, the presence of the atrium in front of the peristyle as a semi-public space creates a filter between the public and the courtyard.

This evolutive process, shows that there is a fifth point to the uniform acceptance of the patio: the cultural aspects, each civilization interpreted and made use of this element relating it to their tradition and habits (8). This type proved to be very versatile and elastic, adapting to different needs. Moreover, having studied a few examples of how different cultures used the patio, we acknowledge that the relation between interior and exterior in the patio-house changes from one civilization to another.

In light of these examples, we start to outline some important definitions to characterize the patio: it is a core element for the organization of the house, it is an uncovered space and it carries the ambiguity of being an open area that seeks for privacy and introspection. As a consequence, the relation between the patio and the house complexifies into a relation between these two and the outside in which the patio is the interface. It will be important for the research to understand which are the instruments that control this balance.

The patio as interface between interior and exterior Studying some of the precedents of the patio-house, we noticed its tendency towards introspection and privacy. The relation between the entrance and the patio proved to be a key instrument to define this characteristic. The position of these two clearly affects the human relations inside the house and 23

8

Luis Augusto dos Reis-alves, O que ĂŠ o pĂĄtio interno?, Vitruvius, September, 2005, https://www. vitruvius.com.br/ revistas/read/ arquitextos/ 06.063/436

The patio-house in context

9

Reis-alves, “O que é o pátio interno?”

Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 218

stablishes the dynamics of the domestic life.

Nevertheless, we should emphasize something that we started to contemplate earlier in this chapter: the relation between the position of the patio inside the house and the public space. In the article “what is the interior patio?” from 2005, Reis-alves illustrates the importance of the position of the patio in respect to the public space: “We recognize here different ways of being in the patio.

Considering the relation between the building and its site, it is possible to classify generically two kinds of patio. The exterior patio; an exterior space, uncovered and adjoined a building and the interior patio; an interior space, uncovered and surrounded by one or more buildings. Either way, what defines the common ground for both is the lateral limits and the opening to the sky.

However, this general classification does not depend solely in the relation building-patio-site, but also on the relation buildingpatio-site-public space, that is, the relation between the private and public spaces” (9).

With the reproduction of these illustrations here in this thesis (FIG 7 p. 25), we start to explore the importance of the relation private-public to the design of the patio. If we compare the images 1 and 2, we’ll reach the conclusion that the latter is a more private patio than the former. Image 3 shows how the program is also important for the purpose of the patio: if the two volumes are part of one house, the patio is private, but; if the patio belongs to two different buildings, it’s not going to be as private as before.

The author also explores other shapes for the patio in his research, but the bottom line is that the closer we get to the completely enclosed space, the more we have the impression of an interior patio. Reis Alves also highlights the importance of the scale of the architectural elements for the classification 24

Chapter 1 of the patio. Nonetheless, I’d like to a add another layer of interpretation to his proposal. If we consider the building-patiosite-public space exchanges also in section, we might complexify even more that relation (FIG 8, p. 27).

Therefore, we start with the traditional interior patio (image 1). If we use the same schematic design in a different context (image 2), we change completely the role of the patio in the house. From the left part of the section, the patio is completely protected from the eyes of the public, however, from the right, it is completely exposed.

The situation would be also different if the patio-house 1

4

2

3

5

FIG 7

Patio diagrams created by Reisalves 25

The patio-house in context had a basement (image 3). The space becomes more private, but it loses part of the organization centrality that is expected from the patio. It no longer is the element that unites all parts of the house and gives sense to it. With that addition, the control of the patio is mainly reserved to the upper floor. Image 4 allows us to contemplate how different heights on the different sides of the patio would implicate in new views to the outside.

This experiment could go even further if we also considered the materials that would be used for the walls, how the facades would be designed, among other possibilities.

Even though these modifications are very schematic and simple, they allow us to investigate how the patio-house typology can be modified and what these variations might implicate.

It is clear that the further we move away from the traditional shape of the patio, the more we lose the main characteristics and strengths of this type; however, it also makes room for new spatial possibilities. This stablishes an interesting paradox that consists of the interest of this research.

It is believed in this work that some “transgressions� in the design of the patio-house might potentialize visual and spatial possibilities by means of manipulation of topography, heights and materials inside the building. However, these operations should be very precise in order to not lose the essence of the patio-house. Whenever the architect is able to do so, the elasticity of the typology can be put into test, stretching the boundary of what defines a patio.

To conclude, there is a border on which it is possible to manipulate the traditional shape of the patio without completely losing its principles. In that operation, there is a negotiation between revealing and hiding that influences the relation between the house and the public space. The research seeks to understand this subtle balance. However, before delving 26

Chapter 1

1

2

3

FIG 8

Interpretation of Reis-alves patio diagrams

4

27

The patio-house in context into how this plays out in a Brazilian context, it is important to contemplate how some experiments of the European Modern Movement created a basis for that specific debate.

Experiments of the Modernism

10

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 161 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 218

The elasticity of the patio was vigorously put into test by the architects of the Modern Movement, since the shape should be a logical result of functional needs and the typologies were not necessarily thoroughly respected. However, the patiohouse was never fully abandoned, it actually became a recurrent strategy for the organization of the house in the 20th century.

Nevertheless, the patio had no longer exclusively the role of organizing the domestic program into an introspective system, which led to new design possibilities.

“The organization around patios did not occupy a position that could be described as absolutely principal, not even significant; however, against what could be expected, it didn’t disappear entirely. It was transformed into something completely different than the past and gained new vitality” (10).

According to Anton Capitel, the first spark of the modern patio-house was provided by Le Corbusier. More precisely, these reflections were allowed by the Immeuble Villas (1922). Each Villa of the complex was organized with an L-plan; therefore, it created an open space with the area necessary to turn the L into a rectangle. Two sides of this area were occupied by the house, one was occupied by a wall that divided the units and the last was open to the exterior.

A similar logic can be assigned to Villa Savoye (1929), but the L-plan is now closed by the facade walls to create a recognizable volume. Moreover, the fact that this example is a house and a consolidation of Corbusier’s five points of 28

Chapter 1 architecture makes it more critical for the discussion. It is important to contemplate the position of the patio inside that scheme: it is not only the intermediate between house and exterior, it is also the intermediate between the house and the roof garden.

The essence of the patio was still there even if some of its limits were virtual. This proposal is extremely important for both the history of patio-houses and the path of this thesis because it states that the modern patio-house is paradoxically open. The Corbusian patio creates views to the sky as suggested by the classic patio and also views to its surroundings; this way, Le Corbusier is able to merge two apparently excluding archetypes: the patio-house and the Palladian villas (11).

It is important to stress the ambiguity of this proposal; the panoramic view of the terrace proposes exactly the opposite of the interior patio: the interior patio looks to the sky, while the terrace looks to the ground. As mentioned before, designing a

11

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 166

FIG 9

Plan of Immeuble Villa by Le Corbusier 29

The patio-house in context

12

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 166 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 218

patio involves a very delicate balance between introversion and extroversion. Le Corbusier dealt very well with that balance, creating the possibility of exploring new shapes for the patiohouse.

“The compact house with a high living room that dominates the territory is more than a villa. It is a patio-house.

Two contradictory archetypes were merged and synthesized” (12).

Mies van der Rohe also had his experiments with patio.

In the 30s, the architect developed some low-cost typologies as a result of the post war industrialization. In this context, Mies van der Rohe creates a complex of patio-houses. The project shows Mies’s intention of giving some particularity to each of the houses, which never had the same disposition in the site.

The system created is present in the theoretical project of the House with three courts (1934).

The house’s plan has the shape of a T which, together with the limit walls, creates three different patios: one bigger, at the front of the site and two smaller at the back. The house with three patios holds at least 2 characteristics of Rohe´s

FIG 10

View of patio of Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier.

30

Chapter 1 architectural approach: abstraction and minimalism. In other words, simplicity of forms and materials, absence of ornaments, clearly arranged structural frameworks and fluid spaces.

In this proposal, the house is in a central position and relies on the patios to open to the exterior, instead of to the public space. The patio is not a structural part of the space of the house; as a result of the architectural proposal of the German architect, the patio and the house seem to blend together. It is very hard to draw a line to define where the house ends and the patio begins, and vice-versa.

“So; in the context of modernity, the transformations and, more accurately, the resignifications of the traditional patio allowed three main patio systems to be consolidated: The Traditional, the Miesian and the Corbusian. In these three, the wish to create an intimate relation between interior and exterior and to dilute the spatial limits of the house is what remains” (13).

After the statement of Ana Elísia da Costa, we approach our three final examples of this chapter: Rockefeller Guest House (1949-51), by Philip Johnson; Experimental House in

13

Ana Elísia da, Costa, “A ‘barca estacionada no pátio’: anotações sobre seis casas de Alberto Campos Baeza”. Anais do III ENANPARQ – Encontro da ANPARQ, (Universidade Mackenzie: Sao Paulo, 2014), 8.

Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 219

FIG 11

Plan of the House with three patios

by Mies van der Rohe 31

The patio-house in context Muuratsalo (1952-54), by Alvar Aalto and Sert House, by Josep LluĂ­s Sert (1957).

Philip Johnson is known to be a great admirer of Mies van der Rohe; so, it is not surprising that his house is closer to the Miesian patio type. However, it also brings some new aspects to our discussion. Located in New York, the house represents the concepts of the International Style: the structural elements are exposed and unnecessary ornaments are avoided. Similar to the famous Glass House (1949), there is an interesting combination of brick, steel and glass.

The Guest House approaches the Miesian type considering that it also uses the articulation of defined volumes and limit walls to create the patio. However, it is very different considering the role of the patio in the organization of the plan. In this case, it is an instrument of circulation between two separate volumes. It is both an element of separation and an element of connection. The house brings a private microclimate to the interior of the house, in a city known for its density and

FIG 12

View of the patio of Mrs. Rockefeller’s Guest House designed by Philip Johnson 32

Chapter 1 lack of open spaces.

In opposition to the Glass House, the Rockefeller Guest House had to deal with an encounter with the urban space.

Either way, the house was as radical as the one in Connecticut.

The difference was that now the fluidity of space was towards the inside not the outside. The accurate use of steel and glass makes the patio and the covered areas blend together and almost become one, it’s very hard to say whether the patio separates or puts together the different parts of the house. One could say that the patio is just part of this great complex system maintaining relation between them.

Aalto’s tribute to the patio-houses can be seen in a very particular way in the Muuratsalo Experimental House (1952-54).

The architect built it for himself as a summer house. As the name suggests; the house is in fact very experimental, especially concerning to the use of materials, as he used more than fifty types of bricks. The design is also of great interest because it brings some reflections about the shape of patio-houses.

FIG 13

Muuratsalo Experimental House designed by Alvar Aalto 33

The patio-house in context In this project, we can see what can be considered an interpretation of Le Corbusier’s scheme of the Modern patiohouse: L-shaped and open. Ambiguously, the house turns itself to the interior, but also seeks the views of Lake Paijanne. The colors of the bricks underline the spatial ambiguity as the outer skin is white and the inner red.

Lastly, the roof design contributes to complexify even more the scheme of the patio. The closer it gets to the limit of the house, the higher is the size of the wall; however, Aalto creates openings to these walls. Consequently, the house volume flanks two sides of the patio while the other two are completed by walls. The patio behaves as if it was a big roofless living room. This extremely conceptual and plastic gesture shows the want of modern architects to have an open house without renouncing completely the use of the patio.

FIG 14

Muuratsalo Experimental House plan 34

Chapter 1 Moving on to our last example of this chapter, we have Josep Lluís Sert’s House from 1958. The Spanish architect had the opportunity to experiment with the patio-houses in different contexts, both for the grouping of houses in larger projects and isolated cases for individual clients. Sert managed in all these projects to combine the Modern Revolution with some aspects of the traditional and climatic considerations. The house in question brings to light some other contributions to the design of the patio-house.

“The house combines with extraordinary ability the glass curtains of the Rationalist Modern Architecture with the traditional disposition of the patio. With a one-story plan (faithful to the type), the longitudinal walls of the house have no windows, except for the entrances. The squared patio illuminates and organizes the volumes defined by the plan, leaving space for

FIG 15

Josep Lluis Sert’s House in Cambridge 35

The patio-house in context gardens on the extremes of the house� (14) Even though this house wasn’t built, it inspired Sert in the creation of a prototype that he used in the House of Georges Braque in 1960. According to Capitel, it may have been the only house of the 20th century that didn’t renounce any of the advantages of the modern architecture while reproducing with devotion the traditional logic of the patio system.

These examples bring complexity to the historical evolutive process that we mentioned previously. They stablish new vocabulary to the use of the patio and help us get closer to the role of the contemporary patio-house. After having gone through some considerable examples, we might start to underline which are some of the important elements for the accurate manipulation of the patio.

Articulation instruments

14

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 192 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 219

A reflection over a few examples of patio-houses allowed us to identify a few recurrent instruments present in the manipulation of the typology. Since the aim of this thesis is to assess different ways of transforming a patio to create complex relations between interior and exterior, it is important to define how these instruments might be used to achieve this goal. Therefore; as a methodological decision, four categories are selected for the assessment of the research case studies: i) position, ii) volume, iii) program and iv) envelope.

First, the position analysis will consider the placement of the patio. This will include how far from the exterior the patio is positioned inside the house, if there is a difference in height between the street and the patio, whether the patio can be seen from the exterior or not, etc. This category will help us understand which elements are involved in the transition 36

Chapter 1 between the entrance and patio that, as we have seen, is very important to our theme.

Second, the volume analysis will comprehend the proportions and scales defined comparing the house, the patio and the public space. The research developed by Reis Alves, mentioned in this thesis, shows how these proportions are fundamental for the understanding of the role of the patio. This category is complementary to the position investigation as it will complexify the elements involved.

Third, the program analysis will assess how the different spaces and interior arrangement of the residential program are articulated by the patio. Depending on how these different components are organized around the patio, this space will have a different role for the dwelling. As seen in Reis Alves example of the two houses facing the same patio, or in the spatial complexity of Mrs. Rockefeller Guest House, by Philip Johnson.

Fourth, the envelope analysis will investigate what the outer skin of the building is composed of and how it affects the patio. It was mentioned before the importance of the materials of the boundaries of the entire house to define how permeable the patio is. We can see that clearly comparing some of our previous examples: the openings of the Aalto’s Experimental House completely expose its patio in comparison to Mies’ house with three courts.

Certainly, these layers of analysis influence each other; so, they will not be evaluated as if they were completely independent.

The research will always consider the possible effects of one analysis on the others. All these analyses together will help us understand which kind of patio is created by conscious design decisions and how they might be critically used.

37

Chapter II: The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Modernity and tradition, shade and view: The patio in Rio de Janeiro

Chapter II: The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Modernity and tradition, shade and view: The patio in Rio de Janeiro Developed by architects from Rio de Janeiro mainly between the years of 1930 and 1960, the Escola Carioca was the cornerstone of Brazilian Modernism. The relation between architecture and landscape was treated with great particularity as a result of an elegant combination of the national heritage and the ideals of the European Modern Movement. More specifically, these architects reformulated some of the international concepts of Le Corbusier and combined them with the architectural elements from their Portuguese and Brazilian tradition.

The very well-known principles of the French-Swiss architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris (1887-1965), or Le Corbusier, were synthetized in the five points for a new architecture: the pilotis, the roof garden, the free plan, the ribbon window and the free facade. The standards created in the manifesto were all in the interest of making the modern house an open house and, consequently, creating an open city.

The pilotis would eliminate the ground floor or basement of the regular dwellings to allow the public space to be continuous.

The roof garden would transform the traditional pitched roof with a dark attic into a space with vegetation where people could gather while being exposed to sunlight. The modern house would have a concrete structure independent from its enclosing walls; so, the plan would be free to define spaces that could be intertwined instead of rigidly determined by load bearing walls.

This technical definition also allowed the windows to become wider; instead of creating a frame to the outside that should be 40

FIG 17

Five points for a new architecture illustration 41

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

15

Elisabetta Andreolli and Adrian Forty Adrian, “Introduçao, Europa-Brasil: viagem de ida e volta”, in Arquitetura Moderna Brasileira (London: Phaidon, 2004), 16-17

appreciated individually, the modern window creates a collective panorama. Finally, the facade would be a pictorial plane on which the architect could define freely how the wrapper of the building would emphasize the architectural volume.

Hence, the modern house would be a celebration of standardization and mass production; a machine for living, universally applicable and very conscious of its relation with the landscape. However, all of these ideals were connected to a post-war industrialized Europe context to which Brazil did not belong. The industrialization in the country was late in comparison to Europe and this was not the only impasse created by the migration of these ideals, the tropical climate made the idea of a house largely exposed to sunlight unreasonable. The greatest technical challenge for Brazilian architecture was to avoid the excessive amount of heat and light, not to bring them inside. Concerning constructive aspects, the labor was very cheap and unqualified, while the use of new modern materials was expensive, the complete opposite of Europe (15).

Nonetheless, the architects from Rio de Janeiro were firmly engaged with the Modern ideals, which did not mean that the immigration of these concepts was going to be unrestricted and absolute. It would be in the gaps of the abstract manifesto of Le Corbusier that the Escola Carioca would manage to formulate their own language, adapting the European arguments to the Brazilian context and creating what Reyner Banham came to call “the only National Modern Style”. The architect responsible for creating the theoretical basis to deal with this problem was Lucio Costa (1902-98).

In the texts Reasons for a New Architecture (1934) and Necessary Documentation (1937), Costa would support his theories to create a historically conscious approach for modern architecture. There is a line of research that compares 42

Chapter 2 the architecture of Lucio Costa to the Anthropophagical Manifesto of Oswald de Andrade. That is, the cannibal tribe of the Tupinambás in colonial times would devour the European priests believing that they would acquire their qualities. This combination of both violation and respect to the European code was the Leitmotiv for a new Brazilian identity (16).

This comparison explains well the tactics of Costa’s design to combine the “rigorous simplification of the modern shapes and the quiet sobriety of the rural old buildings, a contradictory position to the historical rupture of Modern Europe” (17). The most recurrent strategy would be to rearrange some aspects of the Corbusian five points in order to improve the relation of the building to the site and to add elements of the PortugueseBrazilian tradition (azulejos, reflecting pools, lattices, etc.) to the concrete skeleton. Both attitudes were contradictory to the ideas of Modernism, since the movement believed in the creation of autonomous and universal buildings.

This modus operandi is often seen in the production of larger and institutional buildings. Even in one of the first examples of the school, The Ministry of Education and Public Health (1936-45), with the supervision of Le Corbusier, we can notice some differences from the French-Swiss original ideas for the five points. Their revision created a building very linked to the logic of the site and was one of the first examples of a large use of brise-soleil, which would come to be adopted as an emblematic Brazilian approach. Even though the invention of the brise-soleil is commonly credited to Le Corbusier, the Brazilians established a unique relation with this element, which later would be substituted by elements from Brazilians heritage such as cobogós, lattices and jalousies in the design of houses and buildings.

The compromise with standardization and mass 43

16

Andreolli and Forty Adrian, “Introduçao, Europa-Brasil: viagem de ida e volta”, 15-16 17

Guilherme Wisnik, “Modernidade congenita”, in Arquitetura Moderna Brasileira (London: Phaidon, 2004), 26 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 219

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

18

Joao Masao Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, in Arquitetura Moderna Brasileira (London: Phaidon, 2004), 144 19

Guilherme Wisnik, “Modernidade congenita”, 25

production would only begin in the 60s, when the Brazilian industrialization would effectively develop. In this context, the Carioca production of dwellings from the 30s to the late 50s was an experimental laboratory in which the architects would be able to develop their own poetics of balancing modernity and tradition more freely. Their greatest challenge would be to balance the openness of the Modern House with the interiority and sobriety of autochthonous houses (18).

In fact, there was a belief among Brazilian Modern intellectuals that it would be possible to be modern without losing the country’s cultural identity. Therefore, the ideas proposed

by Lucio Costa were of great interest to them. Consequently, the fundamental characteristic of the Brazilian Modern House would be the ambiguous relation between interior and exterior, combining the characteristics of the Corbusian modern house with the Brazilian colonial houses.

Guilherme Wisnik (19) pertinently points out that the Escola Carioca had a very brief period to go from its beginning marked by the design of the Ministry of Education and Public Health (1936) to its state of celebration with the inauguration of Brasilia in 1960. Somewhere in the middle of these two events, Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012) would shock the international critics with the design of Pampulha (1943) and break new ground for the Carioca architecture. Among all these different stages, some aspects have always remained: a proper balance of integration with the landscape and a protection from excessive sunlight complemented with the correct interaction between modernity and tradition.

The fluid and ambiguous relation between interior and exterior explored by the Escola Carioca qualifies it as an interesting context to study the patio-house. Moreover, given the focal interest of studying the elasticity of the patio, and how 44

Chapter 2

FIG 18

Ministry of Education and public health 45

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

FIG 19

Pampulha Church 46

Chapter 2 it changes because of the surrounding context, a comparison between the productions of Rio de Janeiro and SĂŁo Paulo seems very reasonable because the latter was in confrontation with the former. This opposition is not limited to a general criticism of Brasilia, but also linked to the completely different context of the two cities. Therefore, the selection of case studies that follows will create a narrative of how this interpretation of the landscape was reflected in the Brazilian patio-house.

47

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista N

0

4 5km

Maciรงo de Gericinรณ

Maciรงo da Pedr

FIG 20

Rio de Janeiro Orthophoto 48

ra Branca

Chapter 2

Baía de Guanabara

Port Ministry of Education City Center North Zone

West Zone

Pão de Açúcar Maciço da Tijuca

South zone

Barra da Tijuca

Atlantic Ocean

49

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Argemiro Hungria de Machado House, by Lucio Costa, 1942 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

20

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 147 21

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 146 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 219

Master of the nativist movement, as Kamita defines him (20), Lucio Costa would frequently be inspired by the typology of the Casa Grande to design his houses. This historical typology was a result of the combination of the patriarchal family needs and an enslaver production. The family system required privacy much similarly to the ancient patio-houses that we have studied in the first chapter which led to the organization of the house around an interior patio. While the patio would provide intimacy to part of the house, the front porch covered by the extension of a pitched roof would allow the owner of the property to have a view of his whole land and control his production. This porch would also be an interface for the admission of visitors into the house and, in some cases, a direct connection to a chapel. It is also possible to see in some examples the presence of a room for visitors that had the porch as its only entrance.

“In the plan of the Casa Grande, an antagonism would be achieved between the verandah, with an extent view of the landscape, and the central patio, to which the interior rooms would be turned. This balance of antagonisms would summarize the leitmotiv of the traditional Brazilian house. It would materialize a dual movement: opening to the exterior and interior seclusion” (21).

Some of these historical principles can be seen in the Argemiro Hungria de Machado House, designed by Lucio Costa in 1942. Located in a corner lot of Leblon (south zone), the house needs to deal with an interesting urban context: one of its facing streets is quiet and the other busy. Accordingly, Costa distances the house from the busier street and places the entrance facing the quiet one; this way, the position of the house 50

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150m

FIG 21

Hungria de Machado House, Ortophoto 51

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista makes room for a garden designed by Burle Marx that protects the domestic environment from the urban space.

The house has two patios; one is dedicated to the service areas and is not as important to the research as the main one that in fact configures the dwelling as a patio-house. In relation to the main volume, the position of the main patio is central and it structures the surrounding spaces. This choice creates an interesting contradiction as on the side of the quieter street the patio is protected by a vestibule while on the busier Costa places a verandah which is visually connected to the Burle Marx’s garden.

The proportions of the patio are very proper to the wishes of the architect to create a private and secure environment. The height of the house conditions the only direct view from the patio to the outside to be to the sky, making it in fact very isolated from the outside. Moreover, the presence of the circulation balconies on the inside tightens the empty volume of the patio on the first floor.

The program is determined by the presence of the two patios and the disposition in two levels. While around the service patio (single story) we find areas such as kitchen, scullery

FIG 22

Casa Grande in Rio de Janeiro 52

Chapter 2

FIG 23

Casa Grande in Rio de Janeiro

FIG 24

Hungria de Machado House, front garden 53

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Vestibule 1 Circulation hall 2 Patio 3 Dining / Living 4 Verandah 5 Scullery 6 Kitchen 7 Dormitories 8 Storage 9 Garage 10 Laundry room 11 Toilet 12 0

5

11 9 10 7

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2 8

8

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FIG 25

Hungria de Machado House, technical drawings 54

8

13

12

5

Chapter 2 and dormitory for employees, around the main patio on the ground floor we can find the social areas and on the first floor the intimate areas.

Since the house is two-story, the patio stablishes different relations according to the plan decisions of each floor. On the ground floor, the patio is surrounded by most of the social areas of the house: facing north, the verandah; facing both east and west, the living and dining rooms and facing south, a circulation hall, adjacent to the vestibule. On the second floor, the shape of the patio becomes narrower as it is covered by the circulation balconies. Around it, the bedrooms are organized leaving space only on top of the verandah - where there are two terraces and a studio - and for the vertical circulation.

From the outside, the envelope of the house looks

FIG 26

Hungria de Machado House, position diagram 55

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

22

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira�, 147

very solid, massive and hermetic. The front facade combines the horizontality of the top window and the projection of the roof with the verticality of movable brise-soleils that protect the verandah, but can expose it if need be. On the inside, the ambience is quite different, while the lines of the facade were very strong and clear, the patio had windows covered by a wooden tracery. It is possible to notice that the boundary of the patio follows the logic of the two floors: while on the ground floor, the openings are wide, on the first floor the rooms are protected by mashrabyias and the circulation balconies.

According to Kamita (22), the choice of covering already private windows could only be explained by the want of problematizing the continuity of the modern house.

The house clearly does not follow exclusively the five points stablished by Le Corbusier, showing that the Brazilians would in fact find more room to experiment with dwelling projects. On the other hand, the rhythm and modularity of the facade shows some interest in making the house more aligned

FIG 27

Hungria de Machado House, volume diagram 56

Chapter 2 1 Circulation 2 Services 3 Social 4 Intimate 5 Private

2 1 2 2 1

2 2 2 3

3

5

2 2

1

5

1 5

FIG 28

5

Hungria de Machado House, program diagram

4

FIG 29

Hungria de Machado House, envelope diagram 57

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

23

Marcelo Carlucci, As Casas de Lucio Costa (Sao Carlos: 2005), 59

with European principles, as well as does the use of the brisesoleil. This project shows how Lucio Costa sees the modern movement as a process, not as a rupture.

Finally, the design of the house has its main spatial complexity in the relation between the verandah and the patio.

Even though the definition of the patio and the design of the facade could stablish a hermetic wrapper for the house, the verandah is the element that is able to disturb this circumstance.

The definition of the openings made to the patio allows it to become almost a continuity of the interior space, specially of the verandah because only the projection of the slab determines where each room begins and ends (23).

This combination of verandah and patio was not the same as in the Casa Grande. In the colonial example, the porch was also an element for privacy since it provided a filter between the house and the outside, even if it allowed a panoramic view of the land. This characteristic shows a compromise now on the other direction, favoring the modern and open patio-house.

The relation between balcony and patio is crucial for the Carioca patio-house and can still be seen in contemporary examples.

58

Chapter 2

59

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Pedro Paes de Carvalho House, by Lucio Costa, 1944 – Araruama, Brazil.

In 1944, Lucio Costa designed a house for Pedro Paes de Carvalho in Araruama (2 hours away from the city center).

The house made for the Doctor who delivered both of Costa’s daughters has a completely different context than the previous case study. The site is considerably bigger and the house is located near the Lake of Araruama, not in an urbanized area.

The position of the patio is used in this project to define connecting blocks for the domestic program. It is not inserted into a volume as we have seen in Hungria de Machado, but placed between two volumes, marking the main entrance of the house. This decision prevents the patio from being the most intimate area of the house, similarly to the case mentioned by Reis-alves, quoted in the first chapter.

The patio is a regular square in plan, while in section it has a few variances. Facing east, west and north, the boundary height of the patio is very similar, between 3 and 4 meters. Facing south, the wall is taller due to the configuration of the slope of the roof. This proportion creates a hierarchy that highlights the presence of the south wing rather than the north from the view of the patio.

The organization of the program shows a clear definition that the patio is in fact the main social entrance area. Furthermore, the presence of the living and dining rooms on one block and the chapel on the other shows Costa’s intention of making the patio an element that unites the house rather than separates it.

The single-story plan was determined according to the logic of the strong axis by the central entrance: The north block is dedicated to the visitors’ quarters and a chapel, while the south block is reserved for the owner’s family, dining and living rooms, 60

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FIG 30

Paes de Carvalho House, Ortophoto 61

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista garage and other service areas. However, the garage, kitchen and other auxiliary spaces are not directly connected to the patio, but to the outside and to the south block. Two covered galleries west and east of the patio allow the connection between the two blocks and a roofed entrance.

The front door of the house gives direct access to the patio; on the opposite side, there are vertical wooden elements that allow the visitor to see through one of the boundaries of the patio. The other walls that compose the limit of the patio belong to the two blocks cited beforehand. The north facing volume has very small openings towards the patio and slightly bigger ones facing the surrounding landscape. The windows and doors of the south block that are turned to the patio are somewhat larger, but still very private, one of them having mashrabyias. The facade that faces the lake is the one that opens itself the most with a large balcony and wide windows for the appreciation of the view, while the windows and balcony of the annex to the outside are more modest. The extension of the roof eave to highlight the entrance of the chapel and the presence smaller windows on the north facade creates a contrast with the exposed south facade.

The interpretation of the Casa Grande is still present here, but in a very complex way. Paradoxically, the patio is the element that makes the filter between the outside and the interior. While in the colonial example the role of separating the intimacy of the house from the chapel and visitor’s quarters belonged to the porch, in this modern interpretation of Costa, the role is exerted by the patio. This decision is confirmed by the design of the windows of the main block, while the windows that face the lake are wide, the ones that face the patio are minimal and covered by mashrabyias.

Of course, this definition is also related to climatic 62

Chapter 2

FIG 31

Paes de Carvalho House, entrance

FIG 32

Paes de Carvalho House, balcony and south wing

FIG 33

Paes de Carvalho House, service and social entrances 63

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

24

Carlucci, As Casas de Lucio Costa, 57

aspects. The crossed ventilation is enhanced by the use of the external protection facing north as the hot air concentrated on the mashrabyias ascend and allows the fresh breeze present on the opposite facade to cross the house. In any case, the design decision reformulates the typology of the Casa Grande, adapting it to modern needs in a very complex spatial arrangement.

Consequently, the most interior area of the house becomes the biggest view to the landscape, the garden. Carlucci (24) believes that Costa’s description of the Brazilian House evolution in a text of the project of Parque Guinle helps understand the

Circulation 1 Patio 2 Dining 3 Living 4 Verandah 5 Kitchen 6 Dormitories 7 Storage 8 Garage 9 Laundry room 10 Toilet 11 Church 12 Sacristy 13 0

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FIG 34

Paes de Carvalho House, technical drawings 64

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Chapter 2

FIG 35

Paes de Carvalho House, chapel entrance 65

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

25

Lucio Costa, Registro de uma vivência, (Sao Paulo, 1995), 212 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 219

spatial complexity of the house: “In the 17th century the scheme gets more refined; the chapel occupies a room next to the front balcony, serving the wanderers without letting them participate in the intimacy of the house (…) In the 19th century, the houses of the suburbs achieve privacy with its depth and extent corridors that connect the bedrooms, the front living room, the guest room, the entrance terrace, the dining room and the private balcony at the back with access to a garden” (25).

Finally, it is possible to see in these two houses developed

by Lucio Costa that the patio is an instrument for the manipulation of the interaction with the landscape. In these two projects, the same typology (patio-house) was manipulated in order to achieve completely different results. While in Hungria de Machado the idea was to isolate the house from the exposed urban environment, in Paes de Carvalho, the proposal was to stablish a strong relation with nature. In any case, the patio

FIG 36

Paes de Carvalho House, view of the patio from the outside of the house 66

Chapter 2 was an element that defined the degrees of intimacy of the house and structured the different agents bound to the contact between house and landscape.

FIG 37

Paes de Carvalho House, position diagram

FIG 38

Paes de Carvalho House, volume diagram 67

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Circulation 1 Services 2 Social 3 Intimate 4 Private 5

2 3 4 1 2

5

2 1 2

FIG 39

Paes de Carvalho House, program diagram FIG 40

Paes de Carvalho House, envelope diagram

68

Chapter 2

69

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Lima Pádua House, by Oscar Niemeyer, 1943 – Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

26

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 154 27

PGuilherme Wisnik, “Modernidade congenita”, 30

The movement started by Costa had a considerable number of admirers and the flexibilization of the functionalist models had different results in each of his followers. The open modern house thought out by Corbusier proved to be extremely fit for the interaction with the tropical nature. Moreover, the freedom from having the idealistic values of industrialized Europe favored the fruition of the landscape (26).

Undoubtedly, Costa’s main pupil was Oscar Niemeyer.

In houses, the two would have very similar approaches in the sense of suggesting connections with past examples of the Brazilian history. For Niemeyer, the meaning of tranquility that came from the colonial houses would be translated into light and openness. In his projects, he refused to conceive forms as a generic functionalist approach which did not mean that his designs were merely plastic elaborations.

Especially after the international shock of Pampulha in 1943, Niemeyer started to develop a very unique language.

However, he has never used forms as an ornament, his designs are always conscious about the architectonic form as a whole, carrying the logic of reinforced concrete and improving the relation between architecture and site (27).

In the same year of the inauguration of Pampulha, the Lima Padua House (Joao Lima Pádua and Lucia Valadares Pádua) was built in Minas Gerais. Still far from his postPampulha elaborations, but yet far enough from the ideals of Le Corbusier. Resembling the Hungria de Machado House by Lucio Costa, it is located in a corner lot in a somewhat dense urban environment. Niemeyer distances the house equally from both streets (Araguari and Bernardo Guimarães) and, from 70

Chapter 2 N

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150m

FIG 41

Lima Pรกdua House, Ortophoto 71

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

FIG 42

Lima Pรกdua House, main facade 72

Chapter 2

73

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista the neighbors, he creates a small gap between the house and the west edge of the lot. The single-story house is organized around a patio that provides privacy and light to the domestic environment.

Anticipating to a certain degree the solution that would be adopted by Aalto in Muuratsalo ten years later, the patio behaves like another room of the house, not as an overall circulation instrument. Its position is considerably distant from the entrance; however, there is another access allowed directly to the patio. The entrance is not equidistant from both sides of the wall, suggesting that the north section of the house is less intimate. It maintains contact with the nobler areas of the house, while the service areas have their circulation and ventilation made through the small gap between the house and the northwest neighbor.

Entrance hall 1 Patio 2 Dining 3 Living 4 Kitchen 5 Dormitories 6 Garage 7 Toilet 8 0

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FIG 43

Lima de Padua House, technical drawings 74

4

Chapter 2 Also like the Experimental house of Aalto, the roof turns to the interior, confirming the introspection expected from a patio-house. Thus, the volume of the patio has a regular rectangular base with an irregular top. This definition stablishes a hierarchy that favors the north section of the house, suggesting that this part of the volume is more social than the south one.

In fact, this suggestion is confirmed by the organization of the program. The U-shaped plan is divided in two L-shaped parts, the north facing section makes room for the most social areas of the house, while the other is reserved for the inhabitants.

The whole scheme is complete with a volume of service areas that distances the house from the limit of the site. The patio underlines the difference between the two zones with the design of a garden by Burle Marx.

The single-story plan is organized around the patio, but it does not rely exclusively on it to structure its circulation. Instead, the circulation between the bedrooms and the dining and living rooms is made through a corridor distanced from the patio.

While the bedroom for employees, kitchen, service entrance and other facilities are hidden in a smaller volume close to the limit of the site, the main entrance gives access to a vestibule and social areas that are organized to emphasize the relation with the interior garden. Consequently, the patio behaves as another room in the house. It is strongly linked to the living room, it has its importance to the organization of the house but it is not the only actor structuring the whole scheme, it divides this responsibility with the constructed volume and with the design of the garden.

From the main street, the Bernardo GuimarĂŁes street, the profile of the house seems regular an does not have many openings, only the three accesses (social, service and cars). The natural light provided by the patio, allows Niemeyer to cover an 75

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

28

Marcos Leite Almeida. As casas de Oscar Niemeyer, (Porto Alegre: 2005), 78

almost blank facade with azulejos. The extension of the garage beyond the limit of the rest of the house creates a support on which a slab is placed to highlight the entrance. From the side street, the Araguari street, it is possible to notice the shape of the roof and the completion of the boundary of the patio with a wall of cobogรณs (28). The openings of the living and dining rooms allow almost a continuation of their space into the patio, while the bedrooms and bathrooms have smaller openings.

Consequently, the spatial interaction between the patio and the interior of the house is mainly limited to the part of the

FIG 44

Lima de Padua House, position diagram

FIG 45

Lima de Padua House, volume diagram 76

Chapter 2 plan that house the living and dining rooms. The design of the garden and the position of the patio door enhance the privacy of the bedrooms. The patio-house designed by Niemeyer brings up again the contradictory wish of the modern patio-house of seeking to be strongly linked to the landscape and provide privacy at the same time. Moreover, it shows that the reinterpretation of the Corbusian dogmas made by the Cariocas enhances the spatial ambiguity of the typology, the pitched roof turned to inside and the use of azulejos would suggest an introspective house, while the wall of cobogรณs slightly reveal its intimacy.

1 Circulation 2 Services 3 Social 4 Private

2 1 4

3

FIG 46

Lima de Padua House, program diagram FIG 47

Lima de Padua House, envelope diagram

77

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Rothschild House, by Oscar Niemeyer, 1962 – Caesarea, Israel.

29

Oscar Niemeyer, Oscar Niemeyer, (Rio de Janeiro: 2001), 116 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 220

In 1962, Niemeyer designs a house for Edmund Adolphe de Rothschild, descendent of the French branch of the Rothschild family. The house was supposed to be a summer house for the banker in an arid area but close to the sea in Caesarea, Israel. After designing Pampulha and consistently defining his architectural approach in projects such as the Canoas House and buildings in Brasilia, Niemeyer is very conscious about how to implement his new strategies in this patio-house.

In his sketches, it is possible to see other proposals for the house that recall some of the buildings in Brasilia, but the (unbuilt) final proposal recalls mostly the Canoas House.

Conscious about the climate characteristics, Niemeyer designs the house with a patio as its main space. The rectangular plan and the modest design of the facade contrast with the complexity of the sinuous opening of the slab in the interior.

“It is a simple and welcoming house, it is almost completely close to the outside, but inside, it is filled with surprises and movement (...) The objective was to create shade and tranquility in the hot area of Caesarea. Our idea was to emphasize this contrast: a sober exterior and, internally, the living room, garden and pool complete each other under the free curves of the roof ” (29).

In fact, the description made by Niemeyer repeats many of the values that we have seen in the patio-houses of the first chapter. On the other hand, some of the decisions for the facade highlight the modern wish of the modern house and spatial complexity of Brazilian architecture. From the outside, the house seems like an autonomous hovering monolith, but from the inside, the spaces are interconnected and fluid.

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Chapter 2 The position of the patio, on one hand, recalls the traditional use of the vestibule to filter the entrance to the patio.

On the other, the patio is very close to the only considerably exposed facade of the house with a porch. The elevation of the house and the proximity between patio and porch suggest an interest of having a section of the patio with visual control of the surrounding landscape.

The sinuous section made on the slab is very decisive.

First, the shape of the opening in the roof clearly follows the complex spatial dynamics of the house: it protects from the sun the access to rooms provided by a staircase. Also, it makes a turn providing both shade to the living room and light for the pool and touches again the limit of the house with the creation of sun protection for the porch. The elevation of the bedrooms and office suggests that they are not as connected to the patio as the living room, which have the same ceiling height and are directly connected.

On the other hand, the organization of the plan makes

FIG 48

Rothschild House model 79

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista it very difficult to determine precisely the physical limits of the patio. The combination of the winding opening of the slab with the regular elements organized inside the house blur the frontier between the patio and the constructed volume. The divisions of some rooms are made with a difference of levels instead of compartments, allowing a visual connection between them.

The program is defined by an L-shaped plan. Niemeyer was careful to position the reserved areas of the house on the edges, the dormitories protected by a porch and services hidden behind the living room. Hence, the social area and the patio compose one fluid space, while the services and bedrooms are more private.

The envelope of the house underlines the fluidity just Entrance hall 1 Patio 2 Dining / Living 3 Kitchen 4 Dormitories 5 Studio 6 Verandah 7 Toilet 8 0

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Rothschild House, technical drawings 80

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Chapter 2 mentioned, it is very difficult to define clear boundaries for this house. While the two main slabs and three of the facades stablish clearer limits, the porch expands the view and the relation between the house and the outside. Furthermore, the other interior divisions made mainly with moveable panels, bookcases and steps prevent the house from being completely enclosed.

Instead, the open box would be composed of different grades of interiority and exteriority, “full of surprises�, as the architect would define.

The combination of the opening of the slab and the opening of the facade creates an intermediate space between the interior and exterior that reminds us of the elevated position of the porch of the Casa Grande in a position of visual control

FIG 50

Rothschild House sketch of pool seen from the patio

FIG 51

Rothschild House model of pool seen from the dormitories corridor 81

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista of the surrounding area. The patio-houses are exceptions in the work of an architect like Niemeyer that is always seeking for a direct contact with the surrounding landscape.

However, these two examples (summed with the examples of Lucio Costa) show how multifunctional this type can be. We have seen it being used in an urbanized area, surrounded by gardens and exposed to an arid climate. Furthermore, it shows the particularity of the role of the patio in the spatial complexity of Brazilian architecture that was present in Colonial times, in modernism and that is still present in contemporaneity. The typology that came from the same genesis is reflected in varied spatial articulations, showing its tendency to elasticity depending on the context the house is inserted and the wills of the architect.

FIG 52

Rothschild House, position diagram

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FIG 53

Rothschild House, volume diagram

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Rothschild House, program diagram

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Rothschild House, envelope diagram 83

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Walther Moreira Salles House, by Olavo Redig de Campos, 1948-51 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

30

Wisnik, Guilherme. “Casa Walther Moreira Salles, Quadro a quadro”

The last example of patio-houses designed by Cariocas mentioned in this chapter was designed in 1948 for the ambassador Walther Moreira Salles, the building currently houses the Moreira Salles Institute. Located in Gávea (south zone), the site adds up to around 10 thousand square meters and is surrounded by the landscape of the Tijuca Forest. The house reflects the very intense social life of the diplomat marked by weekly social events.

The author Olavo Redig de Campos (1906-84) was the son of another diplomat and had lived most of his life in Europe.

He left the country when he was a child and got his degree from the University of Rome. When he was hired to design this house, he had already a public post after having worked intensely as an architect since he was back in Brazil both in the public and private sectors. Even though he is not as well-known as other Brazilian architects from that time, he was the perfect professional for the job in question. According to Wisnik (30), the house is a modern mansion, result of the combination of the Italian classicism and the unpredictable informalism of the gardens designed by Burle Marx. It is an elegant, monumental and austere dwelling.

The position of the patio defines the organization of the house, determining different levels of privacy and measuring the degree by which the house connects to the exuberant surrounding landscape. The entrance of the house is marked by tall columns covered in marble and a wall painted in red, inspired by the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. The symmetry of the entrance is confronted by the irregularity of the patio both in shape, materiality and program.

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Moreira Salles, Ortophoto 85

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista On the other hand, the heights of the volumes around the patio are somewhat regular with the exemption of the wavy slab that gives access from the patio to the rest of the garden.

The plan asymmetry created by the wider angle on the northern edge of the patio is in fact what reasons the use of this slab and highlights the presence of the larger part of the garden.

Similar to Lima Padua House, the design of the gardens hints some characteristics of the organization of the program.

It marks the entrance and creates a variety of paths to the social areas of the house, while protects the dormitories. A wavy wall brings the logic of the garden inside house with a wall of azulejos designed by Burle Marx and continues to the lower floor with a curvy staircase. Therefore, the program is clearly marked by this separation on the main floor: dormitories positioned north of

FIG 57

Moreira Salles, back balcony 86

Chapter 2 the wall, social areas organized around the patio south of the wall and the service areas hidden by the garden with another wall of azulejos.

The patio is surrounded by four galleries and each one of them has its own role in determining a relation between the

FIG 58

Moreira Salles, view of the patio 87

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Entrance hall 1 Patio 2 Dining 3 Living 4 Kitchen 5 Scullery 6 Laundry room 7 Library 8 Safe 9 Dormitories 10 Verandah 11 Toilet 12 Cloakroom 13 Storage 14 Garage 15 Game room 16

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Moreira Salles House, technical drawings 88

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The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista patio and the house. The south gallery behaves like an extension of the front porch due to the use of the same marble for the flooring and gives access to the dining and living rooms, one on each side. The north gallery is reserved to the access of the dormitories and is the most private of the four. The east gallery has the role of dealing with the wavy azulejo wall, giving access to the other gallery through a narrow door and extending the space of the living room. The west gallery is the one that gives access to the garden with the pool and to the dining room, under the wavy slab. Once again, the articulation of verandah and balcony is very important. Three of the galleries of the patio are connected with different terraces and the one that is not is connected with the garden, underlining the aforementioned contradiction between interiority and exteriority.

To what concerns the envelope that covers the house, the design choices follow the programmatic decisions, the galleries that serve the social areas area closed with glass while the one related to the intimate section is covered by adjustable brise soleils. Towards the outside, the openings are more modest and in majority covered by sun protection elements. It is important to highlight the presence of the enormous cobogós in the terrace next to the intimate room, whose presence was not strictly necessary since it was facing south. On the other hand, the verandah facing east has wooden protective elements that recall many of Lucio Costa’s projects.

Finally, the wavy slab and trapezoidal shape of the patio might be key factors to understand the behavior of this patio.

They not only define the zones inside the house, but also the relation of the house with the site. The house is distant from the south edge of the lot and closer to the other three limits.

The gardens follow this logic, supporting the zones defined by the house. Most importantly, the design of the garden seems 90

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FIG 60

Moreira Salles, wooden protective elements

FIG 61

Moreira Salles, back garden 91

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista to leak through the small gap of the patio, seemingly trying to highlight this reflection about the ambiguity present in the Brazilian modern patio-house.

In some aspects, the house is very faithful to the ideas of the modernism because it creates a promenade architecturale through the rooms and patio. The relation with the landscape and wants for an open house are also very clearly from the modernism. On the other hand, the house is the is far from standardization; it is extremely personal, even the door handles have the print of the owner’s hands. If Lucio Costa had proved in different projects the possibility of combining modernity and tradition; here, Redig de Campos follows his teachings with a luxury vocabulary.

FIG 62

Moreira Salles, position diagram 92

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FIG 63

Moreira Salles, wavy slab seen from the patio

FIG 64

Moreira Salles, volume diagram

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Moreira Salles, program diagram FIG 66

Moreira Salles, envelope diagram

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The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Juggling interiority and exteriority, a common denominator

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Schoenauer, 6,000 Years of Housing, 97-98

After having studied some examples of the Carioca modern movement, we might elect some reoccurrences. In fact, the theoretical basis and the practical examples produced by Lucio Costa were vital and created a baseline for the Carioca’s insight on the modern patio-house. The combination of traditional Brazilian typologies and materials with the spatiality of Modernism created the complexity required to stretch even further the limits of the patio.

The overall approval of the patio-house exposed briefly in the first chapter illustrated the elasticity of the typology, the indispensable attribute being the use of an empty volume for the definition of a constructed volume. Based on this definition, the rules for the implantation of the patio created a lot of freedom for different shapes and combinations.

In fact, the definition by Schoenauer (31) of the classic patio-house as the Greek peristyle-house came from an additive process. For the achievement of this paradigm, the Greek explored different solutions, adapting the patio-house to their own specific needs, which was only possible because other civilizations did the same before them. Of course, after the Greek, the Romans made their own adaptations and other civilizations followed this example.

Clearly, the flexibilization of the patio-house was what stablished a vocabulary for the Cariocas to make their own adaptations. In the first part of this chapter, we were able to contemplate some aspects that verify the assumptions made in the beginning of the thesis.

The patio-house was in fact the proper typology to study both the spatial complexity and the relation between 96

Chapter 2 construction and surrounding environment by the Cariocas.

In order to deal with the hard task of combining modernity and tradition, exteriority and interiority, the architects from Rio would unequivocally need a flexible matrix. It was lucky enough that one of the most important historical building examples of Brazilian history was a patio-house.

The Casa Grande had already an interesting spatiality consisting of the combination between the porch and the patio.

This combination was seen in most of the examples exposed here. In fact, the degree to which the use of this combination is made might tell us something about the relation wanted by the architect between house and landscape. In dwellings more densely surrounded by landscape such as Paes de Carvalho and Moreira Salles houses, the balconies have a greater role in the interaction with the landscape, they are more projected to the outside.

Another common characteristic is the partial exposure of some of the facades of the patio to the exterior. Commonly seen in the modern patio-house, we saw this strategy in every case study of the chapter so far. Sometimes in association with the use of balconies, this artifice also suggests what in the surrounding landscape interests the architect in the project in question.

Additionally, the place of the house in the site (the sitepatio-house relation mentioned in the first chapter) was key for the understanding of the surrounding by the architect. For instance, there is great difference between the position of the patio in Moreira Salles and Lima de Pรกdua houses. The former has its patio turned to the back of the site, suggesting a relation with the most interior part of the property. The latter has the patio as its main visual connection with the street, suggesting an interest in disturbing the intimacy of the patio.

97

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

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Ruth Verde Zein, A Arquitetura da Escola Paulista Brutalista, (Porto Alegre: 2005), 4

Clearly, there are common decisions that unite all of these projects: the interest in views facing the surrounding environment, an investigation in the use of sun-protection elements and a flexibilization of the modern lemmas to make space for autochthonous references, which would all together set up identifiable attributes of the Escola Carioca, materialized in the Plano Piloto of Brasilia.

Finally, the Escola Carioca would be the source for the critical thinking of the Escola Paulista. However, the development of the architecture in São Paulo would not be a complete denial of the advancements made in Rio de Janeiro, but a course deviation (32). Alternatively, as Schoenauer could call it, “an additive process”. Turning to the interior, the Paulista response

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Chapter II: The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Turning to the interior, the response of Sao Paulo

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Turning to the interior, the response of Sao Paulo

33

Guilherme Wisnik, “Modernidade congênita”, 40 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 220 FIG 67

Delgado Perez house, view of the patio (previous page)

The position of the architects from Sao Paulo was very critical of the Carioca architecture, especially of the project of Brasilia. While Lucio Costa was the architect responsible for the conceptual rooting of the Escola Carioca, in Sao Paulo, this role would be played by Vilanova Artigas, a declared critic of the Brazil Builds book, which he strongly criticized for having been developed by North Americans. He also condemned the excessive subordination of the Escola Carioca to the ideas of Le Corbusier. Artigas would then create a critical approach to the Brazilian context that would structure the ideals of the Escola Paulista.

The genesis of the critical position of the Escola Paulista was a combination of the city’s own urban development and the inauguration of Brasilia. The new and modern capital was not able to deal with the social inequality of the country and subjected the workforce to brutal violence in the building of the city, which, later on, resulted in the rise of satellite bouroughs, defining very clearly a social hierarchy in the territory.

“Brasília is the clear expression of an Avant Guard that reaches the highest degree of refinement and aesthetic autonomy because it is not the materialization of the necessary concessions of a well-consolidated democratic regime” (33).

The 60s were also marked by an era of huge urban expansion, and a lack of concern about the consequences such fast growth would bring to the life quality of the inhabitants.

The urban fabric of São Paulo became a result of the demands of real estate speculation. The city ambiance made it implausible to pursue the universal ideals proposed by Le Corbusier the way the Cariocas had done. Accordingly, the Paulista production of that period came from a solid interpretation of the territory. As 102

Chapter 2 a response to the inhospitality of the urban environment, the architects from Sao Paulo would improve urban living quality from the interior of the constructions, making use of gardens, light and water features.

This operation configures a different hierarchy between the building and its surrounding landscape in comparison with the Carioca approach. While the architecture of the Escola Carioca would project the interiority of the house so as to provide an intense connection with the neighboring background, the Escola Paulista would conceive the house as a container that holds very complex spatial relations, bringing exteriority to the inside.

A survey of the origins of the schools offers further information to distinguish them. While the Escola Carioca originated from the ENBA (National School of Fine Arts), in Sao Paulo, architecture was a department of the Polytechnic school. Therefore, along with the ideas of interiority, the Escola Paulista put very strong emphasis on the constructive aspects of the architecture. According to Artigas, the job of the architect was to expose the contrasts and contradictions of the ideology involved in a construction. Therefore, the external appearance of the building would be of bare concrete walls supported by few structural elements. Limited by these walls and a single roof, the architects would create intermediations between interior and exterior.

The building of the FAU/USP (the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of SĂŁo Paulo) itself serves as an example to identify the great creativity in the structural concrete design combined with an unqualified manpower that has left a print in the concrete. Inside the concrete box, the spaces are continuously connected with a combination of ramps and plans. Despite that rough exterior, the inside is bright due to the 103

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista openings made on the slab and it has a massive central space that has allowed gatherings and protests throughout history. Unlike Brasilia, where the workers’ effort was hidden by the white color of the architecture.

Following this approach so far from the one adopted

FIG 68

FAU (USP) foyer 104

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by Costa and Niemeyer, Artigas stablished a radical change in construction thinking. Even houses would be thought out as a large public structure. Hence the use of ribbed slabs, large beams and few structural supports, everything connected by reproduceable principles. These ideas come from the international understanding of the truth of materials of Wright and the constructive ethics of the British Brutalism allied with the national affirmation of Brazilian sovereignty based in the use of a technology able to express the poor labor conditions (34).

Therefore, we can underline here some aspects that are key for the definition of the Paulista patio-house. The urban sprawl made the relation between house and surrounding undesirable, the Brutalist political statement resulted in an introspective architecture and, most importantly, the urban fabric was mainly characterized by longitudinal sites, narrow and lengthy.

Consequently, the spatiality of the Brazilian architecture initially nurtured and stablished by the Cariocas would now be displayed inside an introspective shell. If the patio-house in Rio de Janeiro had a complex scheme to arrange the interiority in order to explore the exteriority, in Sao Paulo, the attributes of the outside would be sheltered inside a concrete box, fluidly organized and would bring to the houses the quality of space that was lacking in the city.

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Guilherme Wisnik, “Modernidade congĂŞnitaâ€?, 48-49

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FIG 69

São Paulo Ortophoto 106

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Tietê River

Copan City Center MASP MUBE

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107

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Geraldo D’Estefani House, by Vilanova Artigas and Carlos Cascaldi, 1950 – Sao Paulo, Brazil

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Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 156

One of the most important architects in the history of Sao Paulo, Vilanova Artigas (1915-85) was born in Curitiba (Parana) and graduated as an engineer-architect in the Polyethnic of Sao Paulo in 1937. After the initial production of Gregori Warchavchik, Vilanova Artigas alongside with Rino Levi and Oswaldo Bratke had an important role in the consolidation of the concepts of the Modern House in Sao Paulo around the 40s.

According to Kamita, the projects of these three architects had in common the experience of the urban phenom, even if with the differences between Artigas ideological approach and Levi and Bratke techno-pragmatic decisions.

The designs of Artigas differed from the other two in their challenging structural arrangements. For him, the bourgeoise house in Sao Paulo inherited too many aspects from its slavery past which led him to reflect upon the traditional hierarchy of spaces, definition of program and placement of the house in the lot. Starting from the 40s, it is possible to notice in his work the proposal of integrating different spaces avoiding the excessive use of dividing walls (35).

For instance, in Geraldo D’Estefani house from 1950, we might recognize some characteristics that illustrate his spatial proposals and bring to light his contribution to the Brazilian experiments with the patio-house. It is possible to notice in this project how the understanding of urban environment is crucial for the solutions adopted by Artigas.

The position of the main patio in the center of the site allows the house to touch the boundaries of the lot and turn the house mostly to the interior, which is a clever decision to create quality open spaces, considering how narrow the site 108

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FIG 70

D’Estefani House, Ortophoto 109

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista is. Additionally, the architect makes use of two smaller patios: one in the front of the house, distancing it from the street and one in the back to allow ventilation without exposing the bedrooms. The alignment of the patio with the entrance could suggest that it is not entirely private, but Artigas’ ingenious use of the topography, slightly elevating the patio, creates a dubious relation between urban space and the intimacy of the house.

The proportions of the patio emphasize their function, while the ones on each edge of the site are modest and single story, the one in the center has the height of the house which suggests that it has more importance than the other two.

Furthermore, the patio is the element responsible for dealing with the difference of level in the site, creating a platform for the east wing in connection to the living room and the ramps.

The patio also divides the program into two wings. On the ground level, the west wing (closer to the street), is the Entrance hall 1 Patio 2 Dining / Living 3 Kitchen 4 Dormitories 5 Studio 6 Toilet 7 Storage 8

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D’Estefani House, technical drawings 110

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Chapter 2 area in which Artigas decides to position the service areas with connection to one of the auxiliary patios and the entrance; while the east wing (farther from the street) is dedicated to the living room in connection to both remaining patios. On the upper level, the bedrooms face east on top of the living room and the studio faces west on top of the entrance.

The connection between all of these areas is made by the two sets of ramps and their length is what determines the size of the patio. With these elements, Artigas stablishes a continuous space, avoiding the excess of compartmentation. As a result, the flux of the house is a single path, trailing each area of the dwelling around the patio from the street to the bedrooms.

The shell that covers this spatial arrangement only confirms the relation aimed by the architect between house and public space. While the front facade is protected by the masonry wall of the service patio on the ground floor and the cobogĂłs on the upper level, the limits that face the patio are mainly made of glass, with the exception of the bedrooms that turn themselves to the most private patio of the house in the back of lot.

According to the critic Marcio Cotrim, the patio of this house is a residual space. It has a restrict and imprecise function, it is not the structural element for the definition of the project.

Instead, it is the result of the need of connecting two different volumes by flanked ramps. Therefore, the house is a result of a number of decisions that are subordinated to the dominant path, in which the dimensions of the ramps are one of the most

FIG 72

D’Estefani House, position diagram 111

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

36

Marcio Cotrim, “Entre o pátio e o átrio”

important (36).

On the other hand, this house was a considerably good experiment of the space continuum in the work of Artigas which would come to be of extreme importance for the architecture of the Brazilian patio. In fact, differently than the Escola Carioca, the Paulista patio-house is turned to the interior, with a very clearly defined envelope and with an elegant and fluid spatial arrangement. The study made for ramps in this project was key for the development of the architecture of Artigas, this strategy is also present in the project of FAU and was repeated and refined even by contemporary architects.

FIG 73

D’Estefani House, volume diagram

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D’Estefani House, program diagram

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D’Estefani House, envelope diagram

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The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Mario Taques Bittencourt House, by Vilanova Artigas, 1959 – Sao Paulo, Brazil

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Marcio Cotrim, “Entre o pátio e o átrio” Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 220

After the development of a number of projects, Artigas started perfecting his mark which consisted of a unitary structural element (composed by concrete slab and walls) covering the fluid organization of spaces in different levels.

With the design of Mario Taques Bittencourt house in 1959, Artigas was able to revert some definitions of the traditional program organization of the Brazilian house, synthetize some of the most important characteristics of the Escola Paulista and underline the importance of the patio for it.

“The solution of the Mario Taques Bittencourt house is a result of the substitution of a traditional structural scheme of beams and columns for the experiment of the potentialities of porticoes and reinforced concrete shells to define great roofs structured only on the edges of the architecture” (37).

This house, built for the doctor Mario Taques Bittencourt, has some common characteristics with D’Estefani House such as the organization in levels around a patio and the use of ramps to connect them. The most important difference might be the fact that on the upper level the patio is fully surrounded by the body of the building, excluding the use of a limiting wall of the site like in D’Estefani. The patio has in this project a stronger role in comparison to the previous case study: it allows the visual integration between many areas of the house, articulated in half-levels. This visual relation between the space realized by the patio enhances the interiority of house.

As in the previous example, the placement of the dwelling needs to deal with a narrow lot in a relatively urbanized area of Sao Paulo. To provide both privacy and a nice ambience to the interior of house, Artigas repeats the position of the main patio 114

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Taques Bittencourt House, Ortophoto 115

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista in the center of the site. Another common strategy is the use of an auxiliary patio in the front of the house for services. However, the location of the patio in this project has a stronger role than in the previous one. Understanding the relation between the different levels of the house, we can consider that the patio is the main structural element of the scheme. The presence of this element provides crossed ventilation, allows visual connection and structures the presence of the ramps.

All the social areas of the house can be glanced from the patio; consequently, the relation this element stablishes with the entrance is key for the understanding of the architecture from the visitor’s stand point. The patio is partially hidden from the view of the street, so the path that leads to it from the entrance gradually reveals the presence of the interior garden, unveiling the spatial complexity of the ramps and giving to the visitor a general comprehension of the entire dwelling.

The resulting volume of this complex articulation is surprisingly regular, as the ramps around descent and ascend,

FIG 77

Taques Bittencourt House, front facade 116

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FIG 78

Taques Bittencourt House, patio

FIG 79

Taques Bittencourt House, access to the patio 117

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Entrance hall 1 Patio 2 Dining 3 Kitchen 4 Living 5 Dormitories 6 Studio 7 Toilet 8 Storage 9 Laundry room 10 Garage 11 0

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Taques Bittencourt House, technical drawings 118

Chapter 2 the emptiness of the patio defines a plain base for the garden and a regular top for all the ceilings of the upper level, even if with different floor heights. It provides an invisible core for the building, around which everything is subordinately structured.

The organization of the program also presents some common characteristics to the project of D’Estefani House such as the presence of the services closer to the front of the site, protected by a secondary patio and the private position of the living room in the back. On another view, Artigas uses

FIG 81

Taques Bittencourt House, entrance to the house

FIG 82

Taques Bittencourt House, view from the house to the street 119

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista the strength of his spatial arrangement to provoke the idea of privacy locating the bedrooms closer to the street.

There are not many layers between the patio and its surrounding spaces, most rooms face it directly with the exception of bedrooms. The dormitories are the only areas of the house that cannot be seen from the central garden; alternatively, they are more in contact with the street. As a conclusion, the visual connection between patio and social areas is very strong; yet, the garden can only be accessed from the ground level. Artigas clearly understand these conditions and designs the garden in a way that it is meant to be appreciated from the outside.

This decision brings to light some interesting comparisons between D’Estefani and Taques Bittencourt houses. The former has a patio that is visibly accessible and a space for common activities, while the latter has very little space for any sort of use other than gardening. Unexpectedly, the patio of Taques Bittencourt has considerably more strength in the definition of surrounding spaces, while this role in D’Estefani is more balanced with the secondary patios.

The use of few structural supports in the house was decisive for the definition of its outer crust, two porticoes are

FIG 83

Taques Bittencourt House, position diagram 120

Chapter 2 jointed and create a single structural shelter with four supports.

This heavy concrete skeleton is sealed with very light wooden and glass elements, defining if the room in question should be more or less exposed to the outside. While most of the social areas of the house are mainly sealed with glass, the group of bedrooms and kitchen have a different approach. The former has the protection of the woodwork of the wardrobes and the use of glass is limited, while the latter is heavily protected, only opening itself more evidently to the service patio.

In these two projects, Artigas deals with the thematic of the patio with great complexity, maintaining one of its traditional characteristics, the circulation made in galleries around it, but limiting its access due to the organization in levels.

The experiments he developed explored some of the spatial complexities that were initially seen in the Escola Carioca, but directed to interior. As mentioned before, one of the most recurrent strategies of the Paulistas was in fact to bring to the interior the elements of the natural landscape that, in Rio de Janeiro, was abundant. What architectural element could be used to achieve this goal if not the patio?

FIG 84

Taques Bittencourt House, volume diagram 121

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Circulation 1 Services 2 Social 3 Intimate 4 Private 5

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FIG 85

Taques Bittencourt House, program diagram

FIG 86

Taques Bittencourt House, envelope diagram 122

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The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Oscar Americano House, by Oswaldo Bratke, 1953 – Sao Paulo, Brazil

38

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 158 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 220

Prior to Artigas, Oswaldo Bratke (1907-97) graduated in the Engineering school of the University of Mackenzie (Sao Paulo) in 1931. After having constructed hundreds of eclectic style houses in the 30s, he starts developing some modern solutions around 40s. In fact, Vilanova Artigas happened to work in the office of Bratke (Bratke and Botti) for a while.

However, he did not have the same ideological concerns as Artigas; instead, he was mainly focused on the constructive nature of his buildings. So, in some of his projects of the 50s, it is possible to notice a common definition of an independent structural grid that defines the plan and the volume of the residence. On top of this matrix, the architect positions the division of compartments and the facade planes as a response to the program and climate.

“The result is a residential space filled with light and shade variations, breezy, comfortable and undoubtedly adequate to the local landscape. With this design method, the architect is able to combine, like Jorge Moreira would, regularity and flexibility in the same equation; solving the needs for construction rationalization with no damage to the richness of the interior. In other words, the architecture demonstrates that standardization does not mean necessarily the absence of plastic quality” (38).

The words of Kamita illustrate precisely the approach of Bratke for Oscar Americano’s house in Sao Paulo. While the houses designed by Vilanova Artigas were characterized by its urbanized environment and for its small dimensions, the house of Bratke is the opposite: the site is enormous and surrounded by vegetation. Inside this articulation of modules, Bratke also manages open and close spaces in order to create balconies and, 124

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FIG 87

Oscar Americano, Ortophoto 125

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista more importantly, an interior garden.

The location of the patio improves the quality of the entrance (that is marked by a cobogรณ wall) with a garden. The relation between the patio and natural topography allows a visual relation between the verandah in the entrance with the one on the lower level of the house. It also defines a strong centrality to the living room, dividing the house in two areas, one on each side of the patio-living room combination. This hierarchy is confirmed by the need of three staircases to reach the lower floor, that is divided in two volumes with the continuation of the garden between them.

Since it is neither accessible or precise in terms of boundary, the volume of the patio becomes virtual. Yet, it is the emptiness needed to provide the necessary articulation of all its surrounding elements: it creates the visual relation between the two stories, defines the zones of the house, highlights the entrance and gives to the living room great importance as it is the only room that has views to the two opposite sides.

Accordingly, the definition of the program follows this hierarchy defined by the patio. On the upper floor, the south section of the dwelling houses the services, and some social areas such as dining room and a secondary living room. The north section of the upper level is reserved for bedrooms. The lower floor follows a similar organization leaving mainly the south section with the services and the north section with the most private areas, with the exception of a games room and an intimate living room, both connected by a verandah that faces the back garden.

Even though the use of the centrality of the patio might be a significant gesture for the definition of the surrounding spaces, few rooms make use of this open area. Instead, they have openings to the enormous surrounding garden, stablishing 126

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FIG 88

Oscar Americano House, front view

FIG 89

Oscar Americano House, view of the patio from the entrance

FIG 90

Oscar Americano House, view from the patio 127

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista

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Chapter 2 Entrance hall 1 Patio 2 Dining 3 Living 4 Kitchen 5 Scullery 6 Lunch room 7 Dormitories 8 Toilet 9 Dressing room 10 Verandah 11 Garage 12 Game room 13 Laundry room 14 Wine cellar 15 Study room 16 Cloakroom 17 Studio 18 Technical area 19 0

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Oscar Americano House, technical drawings (p. 132) FIG 92

Oscar Americano House, view from the patio 2 (p. 133) 129

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista a greater visual connection with the outside. Hence, the house is not typically turned to the interior, as the houses of the Escola Paulista usually are, which is, of course. a result of the context that involves the house.

So, the boundaries of the dwelling respect both the strict grid defined by Bratke and the autonomy of the patio. The flexibility of the grid allows the architect almost to treat each

FIG 93

Oscar Americano House, position diagram 130

Chapter 2 module independently. The rooms that require more privacy are either covered with modular wooden elements or with cobogรณs, while the rooms that need more connection with the outside are only sealed with glass panels. Facing the patio, there is a very elegant arrangement with cobogรณs on both sides that seem to frame the view of the living room, one highlights the entrance, and other illuminates the closet without exposing the privacy of the bedrooms.

Bratke had a very personal approach, not entirely committed with all the ideals postulated by Artigas. In any case, there are some aspects of his architecture that help delve deeper in the importance of the patio for Escola Paulista. Even with the extremely privileged setting of the gardens in Morumbi, Bratke feels the need to take some of the nature into his rigid structural matrix. Thus, it is the conscious use of materials and ingenious definition of spaces on top of that matrix that makes such a strict constructive system communicate elegantly with the nature.

FIG 94

Oscar Americano House, volume diagram 131

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Circulation 1 Services 2 Social 3 Intimate 4 Private 5

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FIG 95

Oscar Americano House, program diagram

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FIG 96

Oscar Americano House, envelope diagram

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The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista Castor Delgado Perez House, by Rino Levi, Roberto Cerqueira César and Roberto Carvalho Franco, 1958 – São Paulo, Brazil.

39

Renato Anelli, Abilio Gerra and Nelson Kon, Rino Levi, Arquitetura e Cidade, (Sao Paulo: 2001), 93

Son of Italian immigrants in Brazil, Rino Levi (19011965) studied architecture initially in Milan and then in Rome.

In 1925, when he was still a student he published a letter called “Architecture and aesthetics of cities”, considered one of the first manifestations of Brazilian Modern Architecture. In the text he starts exposing his will to create an architecture that could be recognizably Brazilian. He comes back to Brazil in 1926 and in 1927 he starts his independent career designing for members of the Italian community in Sao Paulo.

Levi collaborated and had a friendship with the Italian architect Daniele Calabi. When he arrived in Brazil, he had a considerable number of projects in his curriculum. Between the years of 1939 and 1948, Calabi develop a quantity of houses that are unequivocally patio-houses, respectful to the Italian classic type. However, when Calabi designs his own house in Sao Paulo (1946), he combines the interiority of the classic patio with the exteriority of the Brazilian verandah as the slope of the back of the site goes downhill and lets the house overlook the city. Even if these projects were distant from the ideals behind the use of patio-houses in Italy at the time, Calabi manages to use this typology to be able to open the interior of the house without losing the sense of intimacy in the domestic environment (39).

The projects of Rino Levi from the same time also use the patio as a theme, but stretching the typological basis and transforming it in tropical gardens. Levi had underlined his wish in the article of 1925 when he said that the Brazilian natural landscape is distinctive and that it needs to suggest architects to do something original with our cities, bringing them unique vivacity 134

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FIG 97

Delgado Perez, Ortophoto 135

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista and colors. Inevitably, the connection between architecture and tropical gardens would be the key to bring a Brazilian quality to modern architecture. He was able to explore this quality in the design of some introspective houses in the 40s. “The Houses that Rino Levi designed for himself between 1944 and 1946 and the house Milton Guper (1953) FIG 98

D. Perez House, front facade (top left) FIG 99

D. Perez House, living room (bottom left) FIG 100

Delgado Perez House, technical drawings (right) Entrance hall 1 Patio 2 Dining 3 Living 4 Kitchen 5 Scullery 6 Lunch room 7 Dormitories 8 Toilet 9 Garage 10

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Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 158 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 221

reveal the difficulties and challenges imposed by the narrow dimensions and irregular shape of the of the corner lots that he worked at. In both cases, the architect alternates green areas with constructive areas of the house, creating patios dedicated to each section of the house. Hence, the idea of ‘plan in wings’ is developed throughout the site similarly to the projects of the Escola Carioca. However, the gardens exert an opposite role: instead of providing a continuity between architecture and landscape, they become a barrier that protect and isolate the house from the street” (40).

It would be in the design of the Castor Delgado Perez House in 1958 that Levi would refine this spatial arrangement in a gardened living room, placing the living room between two gardens covered with pergolas. The architect himself states in the presentation of the project that this decision comes from the exiguity of the lot that prevented the house from having any sort of panorama to the outside. Instead he creates a panorama of his own, to the inside.

The combination of living room and two gardens defines a compositional center. Its central location allows the house to be distant from the front part of the lot despite it being the only connection to the urban space. This space is protected by an entrance hall for the pedestrian visitors and is gradually exposed as one approaches the living room. On the perspective of the

FIG 101

Delgado Perez House, position diagram 138

Chapter 2 person who arrives by car, the interior garden is protected by the service patio and it is also gradually exposed by a wall of cobogรณs.

The proportions of the two main patios adjacent to the living room, respecting the general height of the house, make the residence very spacious. Their rectangular bases indicate a longitudinal axis for the house that is reflected partially in the layout of the plan, but represents mostly the extension of the living room that, making it very hard to define where the living room starts and ends. The presence of the service patio creates a platform for the distinctive volume on the facade, the only element that disrespects the overall stature of the dwelling.

The main volume has the interior garden and central living room as the main definers for the domestic program. Around it, three section are defined: northeast of the garden, the service areas are positioned with independent access from the garage; southwest of the garden, the social circulation and access are organized with some other residual spaces and northwest of the garden, farther from the street, the bedrooms have privacy and

FIG 102

Delgado Perez House, volume diagram 139

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista are turned to the back of the lot. The small volume that rises on top of the house is reserved for the employee’s dormitories and a small aedicule in the back hides the irregularity of the site, creating a secondary garden.

These three sections are oriented in accordance to the presence of the central garden. The southwest wing with the social circulation has few divisions that are mainly defined by the furniture in order to evidence the presence of the large living room. The kitchen on the opposite section is turned to the exterior, as well as the bedrooms. Hence, the living space is not rigidly bounded and elegantly connected to the interior garden, without exposing the intimate and service areas of the house.

The configuration of the walls that surround the two patios define some hierarchies and some visual relations inside 1 2

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FIG 103

Delgado Perez House, program diagram (left) 1 Circulation 2 Services 3 Social 4 Intimate 5 Private

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Chapter 2 the house. The smaller opening on the longitudinal walls of the garden create framed views and surprises, while the path adjacent to them is coursed. The transversal closing elements of the gardens provide a wider visual angle, so it is even possible to indirectly see the service patio from the galleries of the bedroom.

This continuity is possible due to the ingenious use of reversed beams, allowing the uninterrupted view on the longitudinal axis.

Towards the public space, the facade is almost entirely closed, but still has a plastic quality with volumetric organization of the service patio, dormitory elevated box and main section of the house, recalling the proposals of Artigas for both of his previous houses.

The study of this work by Rino Levi confirms the Paulista tendency to isolate the house from the city due to the poor urban attributes of Sao Paulo at the time. Furthermore, the presence of the combination of main social patio in the center of the house and service patio in the front of the lot in both projects of Artigas and in this house of Levi stablishes a recurrence that proves to be very fit for longitudinal sites in the center of a block.

FIG 104

Delgado Perez House, envelope diagram.

141

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista James King House, by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, 1972-74 – São Paulo, Brazil.

41

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 166

The movement started by Artigas can still be noticed in the work of Paulo Mendes da Rocha, but in the 70s-80s, the Escola Paulista abandons the requirement of expressing moral values and starts perfecting the plastic aspects of the structural design. Furthermore, the work of Mendes da Rocha is marked by an attempt to reduce the distance between the humanistic and technical aspects of the work of the architect. Thus, the structural invention would be the simpler way of arranging a platform for the unpredictability of social interactions, creating an artificial geography marked by the human presence in the territory. His work and reformulation of Artigas’ ideals were decisive for the work of the contemporary architects that followed the Escola Paulista.

According to Kamita, the work of Paulo Mendes da Rocha involves a condensation process, his projects would be realized mainly by the articulation between floor and roof slabs.

The spaces are no longer separate like in the Escola Carioca and they are not part of continuous spaces like Artigas, they are the result of the condensation of the program under the same roof (41).

Due to this approach, there are not many examples of the use of patios by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. However, there is one project in specific that adds more density to our discussion, it is the James King House from 1972. The British James Francis King invites Paulo Mendes da Rocha to design a house in Chacara Flora, a site surrounded by vegetation, yet in a somewhat urbanized context.

The squared plan is elevated by a pilotis on a sloped site, inserted into the vegetation. The access of the house from the 142

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King house, Ortophoto 143

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The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista ground level, reached by a ramp adjacent to the edge of the lot, is marked by the presence of eight columns and a big staircase.

Part of the volume of the house is vertically open, creating a patio, which is intentionally not positioned in the center of the house, but closer to the access ramp, marking the entrance with the stairway.

The void made by the patio creates an interface between the privacy of the house and the surrounding nature, defining a zone for the ground level that is unquestionably different than the area with the pool and different than the area covered by the

FIG 106

King House, view from the patio

FIG 107

King House, view from the footbridge 144

Chapter 2 volume of the house. Interestingly, even without the presence of the physical boundaries on the ground floor, the idea of interiority and comfort of the patio is still achieved.

The organization of the program is foreseeably simple, or “dense� as Mendes da Rocha would characterize it.

Accessed from the studio, the living room is connected to every compartment of the house and mostly turned to the interior patio. The bedrooms face the swimming pool and the kitchen is positioned on the opposite side of the hall, organized linearly and creating at the end an open service area for activities such as

FIG 108

King house, view from the living room

FIG 109

King house, view from the roof 145

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King House, technical drawings 146

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King House, position diagram 148

Chapter 2 laundry. Between the kitchen and the patio, the architect leaves space for small meals.

The elements that surround the opening on the slab of the upper floor give sense to the position of the patio and the staircase in that part of the volume. “The layout is, at the same time, of a house with an interior patio and of a U-shaped house, since one of the four sides used to mark this open space is constituted only by an elevated and open structure, such as a footbridge� (42). The open verandahs on the southern side of the plan bring lightness to the volume, making it see-through in both stories. On the other hand, the bedrooms make the other section of the house heavier, which forces the living and dining room to be opened to the interior garden. This balance between the introversion of the bedrooms and the controlled expansion of the living room helps not only to define the position of the patio, but also the position of the house in the site.

The skin that wraps the building celebrates this duality

42

Daniele Pisani, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Obra completa, (Sao Paulo: 2013), 132 Quotation translated by the author, see original on page 221

FIG 112

King house, volume diagram 149

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King House, program diagram

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Chapter 2 between bedrooms and social areas. Most part of the facade that covers the social areas are made with glass, allowing the extension of the view past the architecture. The only exception is the wall of the studio the faces the interior patio, this decision intensifies the experience of the visitor that, only after crossing this room, is able to completely comprehend the relation stablished between living room and patio. On the other hand, the bedrooms are reasonably more protected, having plain facades on their smaller edges and a concrete frame in their view of the pool.

Hence, this dwelling deals with the delicate task of balancing introversion and expansion, as would explain Mendes da Rocha in one of his texts about the project. The house is at the same time open to the surrounding nature and open to the private dimensions of the inhabitants, since it has an interior landscape that exhibits the domestic life, structured by the patio and the pre-existent exterior landscape that is connected by the pilotis and to which the bedrooms are turned.

FIG 114

King house, envelope diagram

151

The Modern patio-house in the Escolas Carioca and Paulista The patio as the threshold between house and landscape Approaching the end of this chapter, it becomes possible to ponder the characteristics that unite and distance the line of thinking of the Escola Carioca and the Escola Paulista in regards to the use of patios. The proper fruition of the unique Brazilian landscape and how it affects the spatiality of a project might have been what the architects of the two schools had the most in common. Then, it is only natural to expect that, facing completely different landscapes, the architects would respond differently.

Lucio Costa and the Escola Carioca would elect the verandah as the place of contact with the landscape from the distance and the patio as a place for seclusion and protection, as the counterpoint of an open house. Alternatively, Artigas and the Escola Paulista would have the interior garden as the location for intimacy and contact with nature. This way, the general scheme of the Carioca patio-house would be the creation of interiority inside an open house, while the Paulista would be the creation of the sense of exteriority inside a closed box. The former was a response to the general landscape of Rio de Janeiro, usually very exuberant and wide, while the latter was a reaction to the narrow lots and recurrent uninviting environment of the city of Sao Paulo.

However, depending on the specific context of each house, it is possible to notice the committment of this generic rules. If we take for instance the houses Hungria de Machado

by Lucio Costa and Lima de Padua by Oscar Niemeyer, we will identify a preference for introspection when compared to the other studied projects of these two architects. It is plausible to assume that the immediate surrounding (an urbanized context, 152

Chapter 2 different than the other case studies) would encourage the architects not to expose excessively the houses to the outside.

Now looking at the cases in Sao Paulo, we identify very similar strategies in the work of Rino Levi and in the two houses

by Vilanova Artigas, all three tending to introspection and isolation inside their exiguous lots. Yet, in the houses of Bratke and Mendes da Rocha, we can notice the presence of balconies and the opening of the patio to appreciate the presence of the abundant vegetation.

On the other hand, it should be mentioned that the repertory was not entirely abandoned even with the change of scenery. In Hungria de Machado and Lima de Padua, we see that, even with the need of introspecting the two houses, both examples still try to relate them to the outside, the former with a verandah and the latter with the cobogรณ wall. In the cases of the houses in Sao Paulo, we notice that both patios still have their own interior ambience, different than the one of the outside, even if they are more exposed to the surrounding environment.

The recurrences and divergences in the case studies underline the flexibility of the patio and confirm the hypothesis postulated initially: in fact, the patio can be an element to measure the relation between house and landscape. Moreover, it showed that the patio-house instruments originally selected are in fact decisive in the manipulation between interior and exterior and their varied uses confirmed the elasticity and adaptability of the type.

Consequently, the current applicability and importance of the patio is confirmed. The final objective of this thesis is to understand practically how the vast experiments made by these architects can be useful today. Therefore, as a conclusion, the third chapter will try to delineate how these experiments were significant to contemporary architects.

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Chapter III: The patio for a Modernism set in motion

Chapter III: The patio for a Modernism set in motion Passing the baton, the legacy of the Brazilian Modern Movement

43

Lauro Cavalcanti and André Corrêa do Lago, “Introdução,” in Ainda Moderno?

Arquitetura Brasileira Contemporânea (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 2005), 19.

FIG 115

Bela vista house House, view from the terrace (previous page)

After the most significant production of the heroic Modern Masters, the two schools had very distinct paths to follow. Paulo Mendes da Rocha was the great heir of the legacy of the Escola Paulista, and embraced the mission to pass its ideals forward. Meanwhile, the longevity and individual talent of the production of Niemeyer somehow shadowed the upcoming generation of architects in Rio de Janeiro. Either way, the contemporary architects of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo show a clear influence of the historical modern projects developed by the two schools. After decades, their production critically abandons the premises of transforming society with architecture and start making use of the Modern past as an architectural language, instead of an ideology.

Without the State initiative, the most significant production of contemporary Brazilian architects swerved to private clients.

The work of this new generation shows how much the former experience of the above mentioned heroic Modern Masters might be of great avail to contemporary architecture: a reviewed modernism, with some of its aspects discarded but with new questions set in motion (43). Therefore, the analysis of the work of this generation might not only help to conclude the research about patio-houses, but to understand what attributes of the successful period of the two schools might be applicable today.

It would be impossible to discuss the transition from the Modern Movement to what the Brazilian architecture is today, without relating it to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964156

85), a tragic historical period of political, cultural and academic repression. During the dictatorship, the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Sao Paulo (FAU-USP) was submitted to the repressive forces of the State, which debilitated the development of an architectural critical thinking. The persecution perpetrated by the regime led to the exclusion of Vilanova Artigas and his assistant at the time, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, from the school.

Ironically, around the same period, the project of the building of FAU was awarded a prize in the 10th Sao Paulo Biennial, and Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s project was chosen winner for the construction of the Brazilian Pavilion in Osaka, Japan, in 1970. Nevertheless, a decline of the importance of the school (FAU/USP) followed the banishment of the two professors.

Consequently, in the following years few architects would graduate from USP, and the teaching of design lost most of its importance.

Towards the end of the military regime, in a period of political distension, Artigas was invited by professors and students to resume his lectures in FAU. Artigas returned to the university and taught for a couple of years, helping transform a bureaucratic course into a new platform for debates about the national reality. With his death in 1985, the responsibility of keeping the language of the Escola Paulista alive would fall onto the shoulders of Paulo Mendes da Rocha.

According to Serapião, the leadership position that was passed from Artigas to Mendes da Rocha would not be limited to his presence in the school, but also related to his

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Fernando Serapião, “Sem tempo de ter medo”, in Infinito Vão (São Paulo: Editora Monolito, 2019), 171.

FIG 116

Osaka Pavilion section, by Mendes da Rocha

The patio for a modernism set in motion

FIG 117

MUBE, by Mendes da Rocha 158

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The patio for a modernism set in motion architectural production (44). In fact, in 1987, Mendes da Rocha was developing the design of MuBE, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture. In this project, the architect would postulate new questions for the Escola Paulista regarding the relation between construction and territory, with an enormous spanned slab, marking the presence of an underground museum.

These lessons resonated in the result of the competition for the construction of the Brazilian pavilion of Sevilla 1991, in Spain. On the occasion, hundreds of teams were interested in representing the Brazilian architecture associated with years of re-democratization. The presence of Paulo Mendes da Rocha in the examination board was unquestionably important for the choice of the winner (yet, unbuilt) project: an introspective concrete box with no windows, elevated from the ground with three elements of support. Inside the hermetic shell, the space is continuous with the articulation of slabs, ramps and staircases.

The clear manifestation of the ideals of the Escola Paulista were not unanimously welcome, and the production considered out-of-date. In fact, it was completely unexpected

FIG 118

Sevilla Pavilion section, by Bucci, Puntoni and Vilela 160

Chapter 3 that young architects would return to the former language of the school as a strategy. With the pavilion, the architects faced the risk of nostalgically and naively replicating spatial elements of the Escola Paulista; however, the political content present in the work of Artigas was conveniently diminished, leaving space for a greater emphasis on the structural experiment and the fruition of space.

“The huge gables rising from the ground and supported just by their four corners do not define the mass of a volume but rather describe a space that unfolds upwards and below the ground surface. It is a similar arrangement to FAU USP but with the full span of MUBE, releasing the structure from a grid of internal pillars and beams still present in the Artigas building. It would thus create a tension between the weight of the structural gables, separated from the ground by a thin band of shadow” (45).

The architects responsible for this project were Angelo Bucci, Alvaro Puntoni and José Oswaldo Vilela. Starting from this initial concept of defining the shape from the

45

Renato Anelli.

“The competition for the Brazilian Pavillion at Seville, 1992”, in Arqtexto 16. (UFRGS: Porto Alegre, 2010), 140.

FIG 119

Sevilla Pavilion model, by Bucci, Puntoni and Vilela 161

The patio for a modernism set in motion

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Renato Anelli.

“The competition for the Brazilian Pavillion at Seville, 1992”, 142.

structural arrangement, they would then understand that this comprehension could be expanded and adapt this thinking to different scales and situations, using a wider selection of materials.

“In other words, a wider understanding of architecture, adaptability to different programs and conditions, and a broader palette of materials other than reinforced concrete demonstrated that its authors had overcome the limitations noted by the critics of the time. The more pragmatic of these pointed out inconsistencies in the project for its proposed use and in the building specifications to be followed for the project to be viable in the required time frame. The more conceptual reduced it to a phenomenon ‘from a small group in the city of São Paulo’ which did not represent the modern architecture of Corbusier and Niemeyer” (46).

Indeed, Angelo Bucci (1963) is considered by the critics one of the most relevant architects of Sao Paulo, which proves that the authors would in fact surpass the limitations observed by the ones who were against the project at the time. After having worked with Alvaro Puntoni and been an associate in the office MMBB (1996-2002), he opened his own office called SPBR. He graduated in 1987 and continued developing research in USP, which led him to become a professor there in 2001.

After many years of practice, it is possible to see with greater accuracy how Bucci was able to eventually reformulate the ideals of the Escola Paulista. The use of concrete is still there, as well as pure geometrical elements with heavy gables contrasting with light translucent openings. The experiments with structure are not only a natural formal expression, but also an instrument for the definition of spaces and understanding of the territory.

While in Sao Paulo there is a “lineage” of key architects 162

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FIG 120

Weekend house in Sao Paulo, by SPBR 163

The patio for a modernism set in motion with many followers adapting a concise language (even if with a great number of exceptions and variances), the heirs of the Escola Carioca are more spread out and difficult to identify.

In fact, many critics question the use of the word “school”, stating that it has not left successors. This could be a result of the frustrations with Brasilia, the difficulty to follow the great individual talent of Niemeyer or any other reason, but the truth is that Sao Paulo took the Brazilian architecture sovereignty in the eyes of the critic, probably thanks to this clearer baton exchange.

Before the current economic crisis, a period of financial growth witnessed the interest of affluent clients to pay for houses of great complexity. In that context, we might recognize in the work of the Thiago Bernardes (1974) some aspects that allude the Escola Carioca.

Thiago Bernardes, grandson of Sergio Bernardes (19192002), one of the most celebrated architects of his generation, and son of Cláudio Bernardes (1949-2001), became partner of Paulo Jacobsen, after Claudio’s death in a car accident. However, after the dissolution of the partnership of the Bernardo and Paulo Jacobsen Studio, Thiago had more freedom to explore the use of materials.

There seems to be an interest in exploring the dichotomy between weight and lightness in the work of the heir of the Bernardes heritage. In many of his houses, we may recognize how the use of a heavy base contrasts with the lightness of the design of the roof that looks as if it is hovering on top of the house. Thiago states that this is a strategy to minimize the impact of the construction on the landscape. His commissions commonly consist of huge houses with large sites and great views which probably led him to define this modus operandi as a way to successfully design a house that is in direct contact with 164

Chapter 3 nature which, needless to say, would be a clear proximity to the Escola Carioca. The wide range of commissions allowed him to explore the different use of materials and typologies.

Even though the Brazilian production is very complex, especially in these two cities, the offices of Angelo Bucci and Thiago Bernardes seem to be an accurate choice to try to understand the pertinence of the Escola Carioca and Paulista today. Despite a considerable age difference between the two, they have a significant variety of projects, which is fundamental to recognize a clear authorship in any work.

Because the objective of the thesis is to understand how the remarkable spatial complexity present in the Brazilian production helped explore the architecture of the patio, it is fundamental to try to outline how and where these experiments are still valid in contemporary architecture. Consequently, this last chapter will be dedicated to see how these significant studies made in the Modern Movement continue to be investigated by contemporary architects, unveiling new possibilities.

FIG 121

Delta house,

by Bernardes Arquitetura

165

The patio for a modernism set in motion House in Ribeirao Preto, by SPBR + MMBB arquitetos, 2001 – Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.

This first case study is located in Ribeirão Preto, a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo, 315km away from the capital. Alike many examples we have seen in the thesis, the lot is exiguous (approximately 15x30 meters), with neighbors on both sides and considerably regular geometry. The site helps shape the compact and longitudinal house, organized in two wings with a central patio.

The site had lost its natural shape, so the architects decided to rearrange the existing soil to create three platforms with gardens in different heights and using the street quota to make pathways between them, while the house, elevated from the ground, lays on top. Two of these platforms create balconylike spaces, serving as an extension of the interior spaces, one in front of the site, for the social areas and one in the back, for the living room. The remaining garden is in the central part of the lot, configuring a patio.

With its central position, the patio has many roles: it marks the entrance, allows crossed ventilation for the living room and creates space for recreation with a pool. A beam crosses the patio and structures another slab that gives shelter to the entrance.

Resembling House D’Estefani, the elevated position of the central garden is only partly seen from the street. Therefore, the process of approaching the patio and entering the house becomes very interesting: either from the pedestrian entrance or the driver’s, the position of the front platform makes the path from the street to the patio a little bit winding, creating a surprise. Once there, the visitor can see the street again through the living room.

Because of this space arrangement, the volume of the 166

Chapter 3 N

0

75m

150m

FIG 122

House in Ribeirao Preto, Ortophoto 167

The patio for a modernism set in motion patio is defined by the top of the central platform, the imaginary limit of the crossing beam and inside edges of the house. While the entrance and the living room sections of the geometry define regular and orthogonal edges for the empty volume, two diagonal planes, suggesting that this area is not similar to the other ones, compose the remaining side.

The program is divided between the two wings. The south wing holds the social areas of the house, so, from the access hall to the right, it is possible to reach the living and dining rooms.

The only dividing element in this spacious area is a piece of Verandah 1 Patio 2 Studio 3 Dining / Living 4 Kitchen 5 Dormitories 6 Toilet 7 Storage 8 0

5

0

8 7

+1

10 5

3 N 1

6 6 6

FIG 123

House in Ribeirao Preto, technical drawings 168

1

7 7

7

4 2 3

Chapter 3

FIG 124

House in Ribeirao Preto, car entrance

FIG 125

House in Ribeirao Preto, view from the patio looking at the entrance 169

The patio for a modernism set in motion furniture that makes room for a quieter area with a desk, while the living room is in close contact with both the patio and the front garden near the street. North of the patio and farther from the street, the bedrooms, bathrooms and another studio are positioned.

In contrast with the social area, the dormitories face the back garden while the bathrooms, curiously, face the central garden. The long hall that connects the two wings shares a wall with the kitchen, organized linearly and protected from the view of visitors. While the majority of the program sits on the first level, the ground levels is mostly dedicated to the access and to an auxiliary aedicule with bathroom, deposit and other services.

The strategy taken for the organization of the program defines a hierarchy in the relation between the patio and its surrounding spaces. While the diagonal edges of the bathroom interrupt a view of the central garden from the bedrooms, the hall and living room allow a greater integration. The architect underlines this decision positioning the access and both staircases closer to the south wing.

FIG 126

House in Ribeirao Preto, view from the patio looking at the living room 170

Chapter 3

FIG 127

House in Ribeirao Preto, position diagram

FIG 128

House in Ribeirao Preto, volume diagram

171

The patio for a modernism set in motion The envelope of the building is responsible for emphasizing the visual connection between the different gardens in the project. Two massive glass panels shield the spacious living room and create a visual relation between the front garden and the central garden, slightly exposing the patio. On the other hand, the opaque glass that protects the bathrooms guarantees privacy while bringing the view of the garden to the room, likewise, the dormitories open to the privacy of the backyard, away from the street’s mundane eyes.

In this house, we can recognize many of the aspects of the Escola Paulista such as the use of reinforced concrete, and the successful use the structural arrangement to guide the creation of spaces. Moreover, the use of blocks to access an elevated house is seen in many projects of Paulo Mendes da Rocha. On the other hand, the use of this block as an exterior space in contact with the house complexifies its spatiality. The fluidity of the spatial arrangement, achieved by the clever manipulation of the site, enriches the experience of the patio and allows varied visual connections between the spaces.

172

Chapter 3 Circulation 1 Services 2 Social 3 Intimate 4 Private 5

2

4 5

2

2 13

FIG 129

House in Ribeirao Preto, program diagram

4

FIG 130

House in Ribeirao Preto, envelope diagram

173

The patio for a modernism set in motion House and hairdresser’s in Orlândia, by SPBR arquitetos, 2012 – Orlândia, Brazil.

This house designed in Orlândia by Angelo Bucci and his team had to manage to position residence and workspace in the same lot. The first objective the group defined was the organization of both programs in a single small construction, being able to manage two independent programs in one building, instead of a house with an annex. In other words, the idea was to make the two programs coexist without conflicts.

The salon is one meter below the level of the street and turned to the back of the site, with a modest garden. A gap between the slabs of the two levels underline their independence.

Therefore, the salon creates a podium on which the house lies.

When accessing the front of the site, one can either go down a wide ramp to access the salon or go up a narrower and more discrete access to the house.

Hence, the access to domestic space is a U-shaped ramp.

There is not a marked entrance at the end of it, only at the beginning. Therefore, the domestic space begins after the door on the ground level and the longer section of the ramp gradually reveals the space of the house. The organization of the dwelling makes use of the slab of the salon to create a patio that can only be accessed from the edge of the living room. The top of the salon has also a water mirror that multiplies the amount of light in the patio and provides insulation.

The patio is the result of the articulation of two independent volumes: the salon and the house. The former defines a base for the house, creates a small patio at the end of the site and highlights the different entrances. The latter seems to hover on top of this base, defining a multifaceted volume for the patio and creating a view from the ground floor to the first 174

Chapter 3 N

0

75m

150m

FIG 131

House in Orlandia, Ortophoto 175

The patio for a modernism set in motion floor.

Like in the house in Ribeirao Preto, the plan is divided into two wings: the social and the intimate, connected by the service area. On the other hand, the height of the house allows Bucci to make a different decision regarding the position of these two wings in relation to the street. In Orlândia, the bedrooms are closer to the public space, while the social areas are turned to the back of the lot.

Most of these rooms have visual connection with the patio that is, however, accessible only from the living room. Therefore, Salon 1 Entrance hall 2 Garage 3 Patio 4 Living 5 Dining 6 Kitchen 7 Dormitories 8 Verandah 9 Toilet 10

0 2

+1

5 0

5

4

1 3

9

10

7

N

FIG 132

House in Orlandia, technical drawings 176

8

8

10

10

4

6

5 9

Chapter 3 even though the patio has a strong presence in the definition of the spaces of the house its view creates a gap between the two wings, the spatial connection between the different zones of the house rely mainly on the corridor between them.

The programmatic differences between the house in Ribeirao Preto and the house in Orlândia led Bucci to make

FIG 133

House in Orlandia, front facade

FIG 134

House in Orlandia, view of the patio from the the ground floor 177

The patio for a modernism set in motion different decisions about the materials used in the boundaries of the house. While the south wing is mostly opaque with discrete openings, the north wing is almost exclusively covered by glass.

Finally, the service area balances the contrast between the two programmatic poles combining glass and wood panels.

Consequently, the house returns to the idea of the elevation of the patio and it might complexify the spatial relations inside the house. On the other hand, it brings to the table another degree of density since the base that elevates the house is now semipublic. In any case, the use of the patio is still appropriate, organizing the two programs and providing the necessary privacy for the house.

FIG 135

House in Orlandia, backyard 178

Chapter 3

FIG 136

House in Orlandia, view of the patio from the living room

FIG 137

House in Orlandia, view from the patio to the kitchen

179

The patio for a modernism set in motion

FIG 138

House in Orlandia, position diagram

FIG 139

House in Orlandia, volume diagram

180

Chapter 3 1 Circulation 2 Services 3 Social 4 Intimate 5 Private

1 2

1 3 2 5

FIG 140

House in Orlandia, program diagram

FIG 141

House in Orlandia, envelope diagram

181

The patio for a modernism set in motion ML house, by Bernardes + Jacobsen, 2010 – Porto Feliz, Brasil Unlike the previous case study, this house has a larger lot and it is not located in a capital, but in the interior of Sao Paulo, and used for weekends. The house has a clear geometry: a squared plan with an interior patio and an exterior surrounding porch. A common feature in the bigger houses of Bernardes, the relation between the base of the house and the roof is very important. The volume of the house lies on an elevated floor and the roof is delicately positioned on top of circular pillars, sometimes leaving a gap between base and roof.

A pivoting door creates a transition between the exterior and the interior garden. When it is closed, the door creates a sheltered exterior area and when it is open, it divides the entrance in two. Crossing it, one can access any room of the house from this quiet interior patio. In comparison with the exterior porch, the ceiling height of the patio is lower. Hence, the transition from the outside to the inside suggests the move to a quieter place.

This difference in height is achieved by the articulation between the base volume and the roof. With the exception of the living room, the ceiling height in the constructed spaces is always similar. And since the roof design defines its descent from the outside to the inside, the surrounding porch conveys the idea of a stage to overlook the landscape while the interior garden suggests introspection.

The patio is definitely the organizational instrument for the design of this house. Other than providing access to every compartment, it defines a mark on the site that structures how the program will be divided. While the service areas face west near the entrance, the dormitories are disposed on the east edge 182

Chapter 3 N

0

75m

FIG 142

ML House, Ortophoto 183

150m

The patio for a modernism set in motion Entrace 1 Patio 2 Porch 3 Home Theater 4 Dormitories 5 Toilets 6 Living 7 Dining 8 Kitchen 9 Cloakroom 10 Laundry room 11 Technical area 12 0

5

5

3 7

10

N 8

FIG 143

ML House, technical drawings 184

Chapter 3

6

5

6

6

5

5

4

2

1 9

10

6

11

5

6

5 12

185

The patio for a modernism set in motion of the house. Between the entrance and the bedrooms, a home theater completes the plan south of the patio. The remaining area that is located north of the patio houses the social spaces in complete interaction with the exterior garden and pool.

Therefore, in this arrangement between outer porch and interior garden, most of the rooms have a greater relation with

FIG 144

ML House, front facade

FIG 145

ML House, access to dormitories from the patio 186

Chapter 3 the outside than the inside. However, there is a difference in the great space dedicated to the living and dining rooms. These two rooms, despite being protected by a screening panel, avail a wider view of the exterior garden from the patio. The relation between the interior garden and the social areas creates an interesting divergence to the general organization of the house. While most

FIG 146

ML House, access to living room from the patio

FIG 147

ML House, view of the balcony 187

The patio for a modernism set in motion rooms open to the outside and have a subtle connection with the patio, making it more introspective, the living room slightly exposes the interior garden.

This arrangement could only be achieved thanks to the careful design of the boundary enclosing elements. Bernardes uses different strategies towards the use of materials to manipulate the relations between patio and porch on each part of the house. Most of these elements do not touch the roof, which stablishes a generally recurrent transition between outside

FIG 148

ML House, position diagram

FIG 149

ML House, volume diagram 188

Chapter 3 and inside. However, in the living room, the large glass panels reach the sloped roof that allows a higher ceiling and provide a bigger view to the back garden.

In this house, Thiago Bernardes uses a simple model defined by a regular plan and disturbs this regularity with the singular definition of each space. Therefore, he transforms the initial typology, adapting and transforming each edge of its symmetric matrix to relate the house to each specific needs of its surroundings.

1 Circulation 2 Services 3 Social 4 Intimate 5 Private

5

3

3

1 2

FIG 150

ML House, program diagram FIG 151

ML House, envelope diagram

189

The patio for a modernism set in motion Bela Vista house, by Bernardes Arquitetura, 2018 – Porto Alegre, Brazil This property is the combination of two residence types: a squared patio-house and linear blocks inserted into the topography. The linear blocks are responsible for creating a base for the sloped topography on which the patio-house is located.

The visual result of this arrangement is the contrast between a stereotomic base that blends inside the nature and a delicate patio-house that overlooks the surrounding nature.

The paths that lead to this house are surrounded by vegetation and great views. While one path leads to the car and service entrances, the other guides the visitor to the main access.

It has a central position on the facade of the house, aligned with the strong axis defined by the patio. The pivoting doors open to a generous corridor that reveals the two-story interior garden.

From there, one can either reach the social areas of the house or go down the stairs to the intimate section of the dwelling.

The volume of the patio is intrinsically connected with the relation between the two typologies. On the main floor, it provides light, marks the entrance and organizes the functions around it. On the lower floor, it does not have as much protagonism, but still has considerable relevance for the definition of the plan. The verticality of the volume of the patio provides a synergy between the two typologies.

This is reflected in the program, the typological division also marks a functional interdependence. The patio-house is responsible for sheltering the social areas: therefore, it is positioned in the big plateau in connection with the swimming pool and a small annex with gym, children’s play room, and other side functions. The lower level houses the intimate part of the house with the owner’s family dormitories and some service 190

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150m

FIG 152

Bela Vista house, Ortophoto 191

The patio for a modernism set in motion areas.

The strong definition that the patio has in the relation between the house and the landscape can be also observed in the choice of materials for the wrapper of the house and the spatiality that results from it. The linear elements are carefully inserted in the natural profile of the site; thus, its openings are small and discrete, it is not easy to define from an aerial view where the frontier between nature and house is set. On top, the patio-house has more freedom to articulate interesting views with the outside. While the front facade of the house is marked by an enigmatic centralized door, the opposite side is

FIG 153

Bela Vista House, front facade

FIG 154

Bela Vista House, view from the terrace 192

Chapter 3 completely exposed to the outside. Therefore, the transition from the entrance, passing by the patio and arriving at the living room surprises the visitor with a nice view.

We might acknowledge here some fundamental aspects that are recurrent in the work of Thiago Bernardes. The articulation between basement and roof is key for a successful placement of the house in the landscape. As we have seen in the ML house, the roof is separated from the masonry and supported by pillars on the periphery of the dwelling. Moreover, the contrast between the interiority of the patio and the exteriority of the social areas also recalls the previous project.

FIG 155

Bela Vista house, view of the patio from the ground floor 193

The patio for a modernism set in motion Entrace 1 Patio 2 Home Theater 3 Wine house 4 Dormitories 5 Toilets 6 Living 7 Dining 8 Kitchen 9 Kid’s room 10 Gym 11 Storage 12 Cooking outside area 13 0

5

10 12 N 11

10

13

FIG 156

Bela Vista House, technical drawings I 194

Chapter 3 0

6 6

1

9

8

4

2

5

3

7

195

The patio for a modernism set in motion Patio 1 Studio 2 Spa 3 Dormitories 4 Toilets 5 Scullery 6 Garage 7 Laundry room 8 Storage 9 Technical area 10 0

5

10

N

10

FIG 157

Bela Vista House, technical drawings II 196

4

Chapter 3 -1

5

4 4 4

5

7

6

8

7 9 3 1

2

5 5

5 4

5 4

4

197

The patio for a modernism set in motion

198

Chapter 3

FIG 158

Bela Vista house, position diagram (left) FIG 159

Bela Vista house, view of the patio from the lower floor (right)

FIG 160

Bela Vista house, volume diagram

199

The patio for a modernism set in motion Circulation 1 Services 2 Social 3 Intimate 4 Private 5

2 12 4

3

3

2

1

1

4

5

200

Chapter 3 FIG 161

Bela Vista house, program diagram (left) FIG 162

Bela Vista house, envelope diagram (right)

201

The patio for a modernism set in motion Final remarks: possibilities of an elastic patio Towards the end of this research, after having analyzed a considerable number of projects, we might ponder revisiting the premises of the work in order to comprehend what the survey of this diverse production can offer to the study of the architecture of the patio.

Our point of departure was the generic definition of the word “patio�, which consisted of a roofless area inside or adjoing the volume of a house. As it could be expected from a thesis that has as its premise to test the limits of the typology, this definition was complexified. Gradually, we were able to contemplate how this abstract matrix was reformulated to fit in each specific context, providing unique results.

No matter how adaptable the typology might be, there was a characteristic that could be recognized in every example: the patio ambiguously creates an outdoors space to achieve privacy. Therefore, the act of creating a roofless area inside a built volume is what provides the necessary distance from the patio to the outside boundaries of the construction to generate a calm and quiet space. This operation brings to light the fact that the patio is an instrument for the manipulation of the contact between architecture and landscape, and between interiority and exteriority.

However, its capabilities do not solely lie in the relation between architecture and landscape. By the definition of the categories of analysis (position, volume, program and envelope), we were capable of recognizing how the system defined by the theme typology is actually able to manage a variety of components present in a house such as circulation, exposure to sunlight, natural ventilation, views, program, amongst others.

Of course, this initial matrix would not have an identical 202

Chapter 3 outcome in every place that requires its application. In fact, what makes this typology remarkable and worthy of researching is how it is malleable enough to conform to each specific context.

In this sense, the formerly chosen comparison between the architects of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro came to be fit for the objectives of the thesis. It can be noticed throughout the case studies that even though the architects of these two cities had very particular and defined languages, the conditions of each site made the use of the patio unique, verifying the elasticity of the typology.

During the study of the modern architects, we witnessed the rooting of two languages very linked to critics of Modernism and the need to create a national expression. On one side, the addition of Luso-Brazilian architectural attributes to the ideals of the Le Corbusier created a patio-house that sought to shelter areas with great views of the scenery of Rio de Janeiro and introspective environments simultaneously. On the other, the negative response of the public space of Sao Paulo resulted in the creation of a landscape scenery in private perimeters, everything organized fluidly by the intelligibility of the structural design.

Finally, the study of contemporary cases of production of patio-houses made it possible to see how the lessons of Brazilian Modern architecture have developed. Certainly, this could only result in new ways of thinking about the typology.

Therefore, with the modest selection of two offices, it was possible to not only to identify the pertinence of the study of Modern architects for contemporary purposes, but also how the thinking around patio-houses respond to Schoenauer’s idea of an additive process.

In the work of Bernardes, we identified the concern with the creation of intermediate spaces, the inventive use 203

The patio for a modernism set in motion of materials that seek a greater insertion of the house in the landscape and the use of sloped roofs, an element that recalls the Escola Carioca, as a formal feature to allow varied types of views.

In the work of Bucci, plain concrete slabs that, instead of necessarily sheltering every complexity of the domestic program in a large shell, are now suspended in a clever set of beams, pillars and rods to substitute the sloped roof. On another view, the fluidity of spaces initially set in motion by Artigas can still be seen in the plan definitions of Bucci.

The study of the patio-houses chosen for this project aimed to provide the comparative organization of a broad repertory of experiments with a very antique typology. The research revealed that the use of the patio demonstrates conscience and knowledge of the relations between building and site, architecture and landscape or interiority and exteriority.

Furthermore, it recognizes the synergy between this spatial articulation in the other elements of the architecture such as programmatic decisions, the composition of the facade, the definition of the plan, etc.

As a final outcome of this thesis, the houses are categorized in three classes for each component of analysis (position, program, volume and envelope). The intention is not to make a quality evaluation, but to understand how far from the traditional shape each project has arrived.

The position analysis has been divided into: i) isolated: the patio continues to be private, even after being admitted into the house; ii) distant: the patio is accessed right after the process of being admitted and iii) proximate: the patio is accessed during this process.

The volume analysis was organized amongst: i) restrained: the empty volume of the patio is surrounded by the volume 204

Chapter 3 of the house; ii) elevated: the patio is surrounded by the house and elevated by it and iii) suspended: the volume defined by the subtraction of part of the house does not touch the floor.

The program analysis had the following categories: i) articulated: the patio articulates completely the program of the house around it, ii) managed: the patio organizes most of the function of the house, but with additional elements, iii) controlled: the patio only defines main guidelines for the definition of the program around it.

The envelope analysis had as possible classifications: i) hermetic: the patio cannot be seen from the outside, ii) visible: the patio is partly seen from exterior and iii) exposed: the patio is unprotected from the views coming from the outside.

To conclude, this research does not seek to become a manual of the use of the patio, but to critically organize significant experiments made by relevant architects. The organization of this repertory should provide to the reader a considerable number of references to convey the opportunities that the patio-house typology offers. Departing from ancient examples and focusing on Modern and Contemporary cases, the research confirms the current importance of the patio-house. Finally, the thesis seeks to provide enough instruments for readers to create new ways of making use of the type, confirming that the patio did not exhaust entirely its elasticity.

205

The patio for a modernism set in motion POSITION 3 2 1

ENVELOPE

MOREIRA SALLES

VOLUME

EV

PROGRAM

PS

HUNGRIA DE MACHADO

EV

D’ESTEFANI

VL

EV

PG

PS

PAES DE CARVALHO

EV

TAQUES BITTENCOURT

VL

EV

PG

PS

LIMA DE PADUA

EV

AMERICANO

VL

EV

PG

PS

ROTHSCHILD

DELGADO PEREZ

FIG 163 EV

Casa studies comparative diagram

VL

PG

206

EV

Chapter 3 PS

KING

VL

PS

EV

PG

PG

PS

PS

RIBEIRAO PRETO

VL

EV

PG

VL

PG

PS

PS

ORLANDIA

VL

EV

PG

VL

PG

PS

PS

ML

VL

EV

PG

VL

PG

BELA VISTA

PS

VL

PG

VL

PS

EV

VL

PG

207

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In: Revista do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional n° 01, Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Saúde: Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, 1937.

Costa, Lucio. “Razões da Nova Arquitetura.”

In: Xavier, A. (Org.). Depoimento de uma geração: arquitetura moderna brasileira. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2003.

Cotrim, Marcio, and Guerra, Abílio. “Entre o pátio e o átrio: Três percursos na obra de Vilanova Artigas.”

Vitruvius, November, 2012. https://www.vitruvius.com. br/revistas/read/arquitextos/13.150/4591 Cotrim, Marcio. “O papel da casa Mario Taques Bittencourt na definição da obra de Vilanova Artigas.”

In: Revista de pesquisa em Arquitetura e urbanismo, n 21, Sao Paulo: Instituto de Arquitetura da Universidade de São Paulo, 2015.

Delgado, Adriana Isabel Rodrigues Lima. Estudo do Pátio na Habitação Unifamiliar: quatro casas de Álvaro Siza Vieira. Master thesis - Universidade da Beira interior: Covilha. 2013.

Dennis, Michael. Court and Garden, from the French Hotel to the City of Modem Architecture, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1986.

Fernandez Vega, Pedro Àngel. La casa romana, Madrid: Akal, 1999.

211

Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture, A Critical History.

London: Thames & Hudson, 2007.

França, Renata Reinhoefer. “Arquitetura Cifrada: a Casa da Gávea de Walther Moreira Salles.”

Vitruvius, January, 2009. https://www.vitruvius.com.br/ revistas/read/arquitextos/09.104/84 Gonsales, Célia Helena Castro. “Residência e Cidade, Arquiteto Rino Levi” Vitruvius, January, 2001. https://www.vitruvius.com.br/ revistas/read/arquitextos/01.008/939 Goodwin, Phillip Lippincott. Brazil Builds: architecture new and old, 1652-1942. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1943.

Lassance, Guilherme, Varella, Pedro, and Costa Capillé, Caue. Rio Metropolitano: Guia Para Uma Arquitetura = Metropolitan Rio: Guide for an Architecture. São Paulo: Rio Books, 2012.

Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. New York: Dover publications, 1931.

Mahfuz, Edson. “O sentido da arquitetura moderna brasileira.”

Vitruvius, January, 2002. https://www.vitruvius.com.br/ revistas/read/arquitextos/02.020/811 Mindlin, Henrique Ephim. Arquitetura Moderna no Brasil.

Rio de Janeiro, Aeroplano/IPHAN, 2000.

212

Niemeyer, Oscar. Oscar Niemeyer. Rio de Janeiro: Revan, 2001.

Recasens, Gonzalo Díaz. “La tradición del patio en la arquitectura moderna”. DPA 13: Barcelona, 1997.

Reis-alves, Luiz Augusto dos. “O que é o pátio interno?”

Vitruvius, September, 2005. https://www.vitruvius.com. br/revistas/read/arquitextos/06.063/436 Robertson, D. S., Greek and Roman Architecture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Santos, Eloisa. “Os jardins da residência Moreira Salles, o projeto original de Burle Marx e a Restauração de Isabel Duprat.”

In: Paisagem Ambiente, n. 24. Sao Paulo: Revistas USP, 2007.

Schoenauer, Norbert. 6,000 Years of Housing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.

Serapião, Fernando. “O Big Bang.” Monolito 31 (2016): 1625.

Serapião, Fernando. “O Triângulo Bernardes.” Monolito 44 and 45 (2019) 23-35.

Serapião, Fernando. “Sem tempo de ter medo, de Artigas aos coletivos.” Infinito vão, Monolito 143 (2019) 166-177.

Sombra, Fausto. “Um breve olhar sobre a família 213

Bernardes.” Monolito 44 and 45 (2019) 290-297.

Pisani, Daniele. Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Obra completa. Sao Paulo: GG, 2013.

Tavares, Francisco Luis de Brito. A casa pátio como um modelo de habitação contemporânea. Master Thesis: ISMAT, set. 2014.

Veiga da Costa, Sara. O conceito de casa-patio. Essência, caráter e forma. Master thesis: Universidade do Minho, 2018.

Weimer, Gunter. Arquitetura Popular Brasileira. Sao Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2012.

Wisnik, Guilherme. Lucio Costa. Sao Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 2001 Wisnik, Guilherme. “Casa Walther Moreira Salles, Quadro a quadro.”

Blog do IMS, 06/05/2011. https://blogdoims.com.br/ casa-walther-moreira-salles-por-guilherme-wisnik Wisnik, Guilherme. “Saltando sobre o atraso: de Niemeyer a Artigas.” Infinito vão, Monolito 143 (2019) 30-38.

Zein, Ruth Verde. A Arquitetura da Escola Paulista Brutalista.

Ph.D thesis – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 2005.

Websites Archdaily. “AD Classics: Villa Savoye / Le Corbusier.”

214

Accessed January 20th, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com/84524/ad-classics-villasavoye-le-corbusier Archdaily. “AD Classics: AD Classics: Muuratsalo Experimental House / Alvar Aalto.” Accessed January 25th, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com/214209/ad-classicsmuuratsalo-experimental-house-alvar-aalto Archdaily. “MoMA disponibiliza para download “Brazil Builds”: o livro que apresentou a arquitetura brasileira para o mundo.” Accessed February 11th, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/887193/momadisponibiliza-para-download-brazil-builds-o-livro-queapresentou-a-arquitetura-brasileira-para-o-mundo Archdaily. “Clássicos da Arquitetura: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (FAUUSP) / João Vilanova Artigas e Carlos Cascaldi.” Accessed March 17th, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/01-12942/classicosda-arquitetura-faculdade-de-arquitetura-e-urbanismo-dauniversidade-de-sao-paulo-fau-usp-joao-vilanova-artigas-ecarlos-cascaldi Archdaily. “Em foco: Vilanova Artigas” Accessed March 19th, 2020 https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/768991/em-focovilanova-artigas Archdaily. “Em foco: Oswaldo Bratke” Accessed March 215

23th, 2020 https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/900745/em-focooswaldo-bratke Archdaily. “Clássicos da Arquitetura: Residência Oscar Americano / Oswaldo Bratke” Accessed March 23th, 2020 https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/01-33190/classicosda-arquitetura-residencia-oscar-americano-oswaldo-bratke Archdaily. “Clássicos da Arquitetura: Clássicos da Arquitetura: Residência Castor Delgado Perez / Rino Levi” Accessed March 24th, 2020 https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/766189/classicos-daarquitetura-residencia-castor-delgado-perez-rino-levi Enciclopédia Itau Cultural. “Oswaldo Bratke” Accessed March 23th, 2020 http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa263140/ oswaldo-bratke Enciclopédia Itau Cultural. “Rino Levi” Accessed March 24th, 2020 http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa351575/ rino-levi Archdaily. “AD Classics: Museu Brasileiro da Escultura (MuBE) / Paulo Mendes da Rocha” Accessed April 2nd, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/776774/classicos-daarquitetura-museu-brasileiro-da-escultura-mube-paulo-mendesda-rocha Archdaily. “Casa e salão de cabeleireiros em Orlândia / 216

spbr arquitetos” Accessed April 13th, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/794490/casa-e-salaode-cabeleireiros-em-orlandia-spbr-arquitetos SPBR. “Casa e salão de cabeleireiros em Orlândia” Accessed April 13th, 2020. http://www.spbr.arq.br/portfolio-items/casa-e-salaode-cabelereiros-em-orlandia/ Archdaily. “Casa ML / Bernardes Jacobsen” Accessed April 14th, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/755746/casa-mlbernardes-jacobsen Archdaily. “Casa Bela Vista / Bernardes Arquitetura” Accessed April 18th, 2020 https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/928966/casa-belavista-bernardes-arquitetura Online videos Sesc TV. “Arquiteturas: Palácio Gustavo Capanema.”

Accessed February 10th, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb0DdFHTIZA& list=PLiIQoqgFEbVUMmRoOGrT-YAur5iu51Lh3&index=1 Sesc TV. “Arquiteturas: Super Quadras de Brasília.”

Accessed March 10th, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-b9kyVylKE&list =PLiIQoqgFEbVUMmRoOGrT-YAur5iu51Lh3&index=5

217

Original quotations

The direct quotations of this thesis were translated by the author. Below, the reader will find the original phrasings of each one of them.

9

Reis-alves, “O que é o pátio interno?”

10

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 161

“Percebemos aqui vários modos de ser e de estar no pátio. Em relação ao edifício e ao seu respectivo lote é possível classificar, de uma forma geral, dois tipos de pátios. O pátio externo, espaço externo e descoberto anexo a um edifício e o pátio interno, espaço interno e descoberto envolvido pelo corpo de um ou vários edifícios. Seja qual maneira for, ele possui fechamentos laterais, limites físicos, seja o próprio corpo edificado e/ou muros. Mas, sempre descoberto, desnudo, relacionando-se diretamente com a abóbada celeste e, conseqüentemente, com todas as manifestações climáticas.

Porém, esta classificação geral não depende somente da relação edifício-pátio-lote, ou seja, na relação de como a edificação e o pátio se interagem inseridos no lote mas, como o resultado da relação edifício-pátio-lote-logradouro, isto é, na relação entre os espaços privado (lote) e o público (logradouro)”.

“La ordenación en torno a patios ya no ocupó una posición que pudiera describirse en absoluto como principal, ni siquiera corno significativa; sin embargo, y contra lo que pudiera esperarse, no dejó de existir del todo. e transformó por completo en otra cosa de lo que habia sido en el pasado, pero en esa transformación puede decirse que tomó una nueva vitalidad, aun a pesar de lo minoritario que fue su empleo”.

“La casa compacta, con la estancia en lo alto, dominando su

12 218

territorio, es, ademas de una villa, una casa-patio. Dos arquetipos contrarios que se dirían excluyentes se han sintetizado”.

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 166

“Assim, no context da modernidade, as transformações e, mais precisamente, as ressignificações do pátio tradicional permitiram que se consolidassem três esquemas principais de tipo pátio: o tradicional, o miesiano e o lecorbusiano. Entre os três, permanece o desejo de estabelecer uma íntima relação entre interior e exterior e de diluir os limites espaciais da casa”.

13

“La casa combina con extraordinaria habilidad las ventajas de la arquitectura moderna racionalista y de la disposición tradicional. De una sola pianta y fiel al tipo elegido, pues no lo precisaría en absoluto, los largos laterales de la casa son ciegos, a salvo de las entradas. Un patio interior cuadrado ilumina y ordena las crujías en sus cuatro lados; existen además dos jardines extremos, los dos cerrados por tapias, como los patios corrales de las casas andaluzas o los peristilos romanos”.

14

“Do ponto de vista da arquitetura, a leitura de Costa propõe uma analogia direta entre a rigorosa simplificação das formas modernas e a sobriedade tranquila e ‘desataviada’ das construções rurais antigas do Brasil”.

17

“No plano da casa grande propriamente dita, o antagonismo se daria entre a casa avarandada, com ampla vista da paisagem, e pátio central, para onde os cômodos internos se voltam. Este “equilíbrio de antagonismos” resumiria o partido tradicional da morada tipicamente brasileira ao materializar um duplo movimento: abertura para o exterior, reclusão interior”

21

“No século XVII o esquema se apura; a capela ocupa

25

219

Costa, “A ‘barca estacionada no pátio”

Capitel, La Arquitectura del Patio, 192

Wisnik, “Modernidade congenita”, 26

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 146

Costa, Registro de uma vivência, (Sao Paulo, 1995), 212

um dos compartimentos contíguo à varanda da frente, servindo o outro de camarinha para a hospedagem dos forasteiros que assim não participavam da intimidade da casa (59) (...) Já no século XIX, as casas de arrabalde se alongam em profundidade (60), e extensos corredores, para os quais se abrem os quartos, ligam a sala da frente, de visitas, e seu terraço de chegada, à sala de jantar e varanda caseira, aos fundos, com escada e acesso ao quintal”.

29

“É uma casa simples e acolhedora, quase toda fechada para o exterior, mas internamente, cheia de surpresas e movimento. (…) O objetivo foi criar um lugar de sombra e tranquilidade no ambiente agreste da Cesaréia. Nossa idéia foi acentuar esse contraste; o exterior sóbrio e vedado e, internamente, as salas, jardim e piscina se completando sob as curvas livres da cobertura”.

Niemeyer, Oscar Niemeyer, 116

33

Wisnik, “Modernidade congênita”, 40 37

Cotrim, “Entre o pátio e o átrio”

38

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 158

“Brasilia é a expressão cabal desse paradoxo, em que uma vanguarda atinge o grau mais alto de refinamento e autonomia estética porque não é a materialização das necessárias disputas e concessões de um regime democrático bem consolidado”.

A solução obtida na casa Mario Taques Bittencourt é, em grande medida, resultante do abandono de um sistema tradicional de vigas e pilares em direção à exploração das potencialidades dos pórticos e cascas de concreto armado na definição de grandes coberturas estruturadas perimetralmente”.

“O resultado é um espaço residencial rico de efeitos de luz e sombra, arejado e confortável; numa palavra, profundamente adequado ao clima e à paisagem locais. Com este método projetual, o arquiteto consegue conjugar, tal como 220

Jorge Moreira, regularidade e flexibilidade na mesma equação, solucionando, com destacável economia de meios, as exigências da racionalização da construção sem qualquer prejuízo para as necessidades internas. Por fim, tal arquitetura demonstra que padronização não é necessariamente incompatível com flexibilidade e riqueza plastica”.

“Casas como a que o arquiteto construiu para si entre 1944 e 1946, e também a residência Milton Guper (1953), ambas em São Paulo, revelam as dificuldades e os desafios que Rino Levi teve de enfrentar, impostos sobretudo pelas dimensões exíguas e pela forma irregular dos lotes de esquina com que trabalhou. Em ambos os casos, o arquiteto alterna áreas com partes construídas da residência, procurando criar pátios exclusivos a cada setor que compunha o programa. Com isso, a idéia de “plantas em alas” expande-se pelo terreno, de modo semelhante ao partido dominante na arquitetura carioca, enquanto os jardins passam curiosamente a cumprir a função inversa: em vez de ensejarem a continuidade entre arquitetura e paisagem, funcionam como barreiras que protegem e isolam a casa da rua”.

40

“O leiaute da casa revela, portanto, uma sutil ambivalência: ele é, ao mesmo tempo, um leiaute de casa com pátio interno e um leiaute em U, uma vez que um dos quatro lados utilizados para delimitar o espaço aberto é constituído somente por uma estrutura aérea e aberta, como se fosse uma galeria”.

42

221

Kamita, “A casa moderna brasileira”, 158

Pisani, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Obra completa, 132

List of illustrations

01

Hungria de Machado House, interior patio. Present in the book Modern Architecture in Brazil by Henrique Mindlin

02

Fredensborg Houses, Frendensborg, Denmark, by Jørn Utzon.

Found at https://www.dezeen.com/2018/04/09/ten-ofsydney-opera-house-architect-jorn-utzons-most-importantbuildings/

03

House of Ur, plan and view. Present in the book 6000 years of housing by Norberg Schoenauer

04

Plan of houses in Delos. Present in the book La Arquitectura del patio by Anton Capitel

05

Plan of House in Prienne. Present in the book La Arquitectura del patio by Anton Capitel

06

Plan of houses in Pompeii. Present in the book La Arquitectura del patio by Anton Capitel

07

Patio diagrams created by Reis-alves, reproduced by the author

08

Interpretation of Reis-alves patio diagrams, developed by the author

09

Plan of Immeuble Villa by Le Corbusier. Present in the book La Arquitectura del patio by Anton Capitel

10

View of patio of Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier. Present in the 222

book La Arquitectura del patio by Anton Capitel Plan of the House with three patios by Mies van der Rohe.

Found at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/715

11

View of the patio of Mrs. Rockefeller’s Guest House designed

by Philip Johnson. Found at: https://ringofcolour.com/en/ archives/21478

12

Muuratsalo Experimental House designed by Alvar Aalto, photo by Nico Saieh, found at: https://www.archdaily. com/214209/ad-classics-muuratsalo-experimental-house-alvaraalto/503823de28ba0d599b001069-ad-classics-muuratsaloexperimental-house-alvar-aalto-photo

13

Experimental house plan, found at https://www.alvaraalto.fi/ en/architecture/muuratsalo-experimental-house/

14

Josep Lluis Sert’s House in Cambridge from 1958. Present in the book La Arquitectura del patio by Anton Capitel.

15

Moreira Salles House, interior patio. Present in the book Modern Architecture in Brazil by Henrique Mindlin.

16

Five points for a new architecture, found at: https://petersonlittenberg.com/Architecture-UrbanDesign/ Space_Anti-Space_part_1.html

17

Ministry of Education and Public Health. Picture Marina de Holanda, found at: https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/01-134992/classicos-da-

18

223

arquitetura-ministerio-de-educacao-e-saude-slash-lucio-costa-eequipe 19

Pampulha Church, found at: http://www.casasbacanas. com/conjunto-da-pampulha-e-declarado-patrimonio-dahumanidade/

20

Rio de Janeiro Ortophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

21

Hungria de Machado house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

22

Casa Grande in Fazenda Colubandé plan, present in the book Brazil Builds by Philip L. Goodwin with photographs by G. E. Kidder Smith

23

Casa Grande in Fazenda Colubandé seen from the outside, present in the book Brazil Builds by Philip L. Goodwin with photographs by G. E. Kidder Smith

24

Hungria de Machado House front garden, present in the book Lucio Costa, by Guilherme Wisnik

25

Hungria de Machado House technical drawings, reproduced by the author

26

Hungria de Machado House position diagram, produced by the author

27

Hungria de Machado House volume diagram, produced by the author 224

Hungria de Machado House program diagram, produced by the author

28

Hungria de Machado House envelope diagram, produced by the author

29

Paes de Carvalho house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

30

Paes de Carvalho house, view from the entrance, present in As Casas de Lucio Costa by Marcelo Carlucci.

31

Paes de Carvalho house, view of balcony and south wing, present in As Casas de Lucio Costa by Marcelo Carlucci.

32

Paes de Carvalho house, view of service and social entrances, present in As Casas de Lucio Costa by Marcelo Carlucci.

33

Paes de Carvalho house, technical drawings reproduced by the author

34

Paes de Carvalho house, view of the entrance of the chapel, present in As Casas de Lucio Costa by Marcelo Carlucci.

35

Paes de Carvalho house, view of the back of the patio, present in As Casas de Lucio Costa by Marcelo Carlucci.

36

Paes de Carvalho house, position diagram, created by the author

37

Paes de Carvalho house, volume diagram, created by the author

38

Paes de Carvalho house, program diagram, created by the author

39

225

40

Paes de Carvalho house, envelope diagram, created by the author

41

Lima Pádua house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

42

Lima Pádua house front facade, present in As Casas de Oscar Niemeyer by Marcos Leite de Almeida

43

Lima Pádua house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

44

Lima Pádua house, position diagram, created by the author

45

Lima Pádua house, volume diagram, created by the author

46

Lima Pádua house, program diagram, created by the author

47

Lima Pádua house, envelope diagram, created by the author

48

Rothschild house, physical model, found at: http://www. oscarniemeyer.com.br/obra/pro119

49

Rothschild house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

50

Rothschild house, sketch 1, found at: http://www.oscarniemeyer. com.br/obra/pro119

51

Rothschild house, sketch 2, found at: http://www.oscarniemeyer. com.br/obra/pro119

52

Rothschild house, position diagram, created by the author

53

Rothschild house, volume diagram, created by the author 226

Rothschild house, program diagram, created by the author

54

Rothschild house, envelope diagram, created by the author

55

Moreira Salles house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

56

Moreira Salles house, back balcony photo, found at: https://blogdoims.com.br/casa-walther-moreira-salles-porguilherme-wisnik/

57

Moreira Salles house, view of the patio, found at: https://casasbrasileiras.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/casamoreira-salles/

58

Moreira Salles house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

59

Moreira Salles house, view wooden protective elements, found at: https://blogdoims.com.br/casa-walther-moreira-salles-porguilherme-wisnik/

60

Moreira Salles house, view of the back garden, found at: https://blogdoims.com.br/casa-walther-moreira-salles-porguilherme-wisnik/

61

Moreira Salles house, position diagram, created by the author

62

Moreira Salles house, view of the wavy slab, found at: https://casasbrasileiras.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/casamoreira-salles/

63

227

64

Moreira Salles house, volume diagram, created by the author

65

Moreira Salles house, program diagram, created by the author

66

Moreira Salles house, envelope diagram, created by the author

67

Castor Delgado Perez houe, view of the patio, found at: https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/766189/classicos-daarquitetura-residencia-castor-delgado-perez-rino-levi

68

FAU (USP), found at https://www.atlasofplaces.com/architecture/fau-usp/

69

Sao Paulo Ortophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

70

D’Estefani house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

71

D’Estefani house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

72

D’Estefani house, position diagram, created by the author

73

D’Estefani house, volume diagram, created by the author

74

D’Estefani house, program diagram, created by the author

75

D’Estefani house, envelope diagram, created by the author

76

Taques Bittencourt house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

228

Taques Bittencourt house, front facade, found at https://www.arcoweb.com.br/noticias/arquitetura/residenciaprojetada-por-vilanova-artigas-em-sao-paulo-e-tombada

77

Taques Bittencourt house, patio, found at https://www.arcoweb.com.br/noticias/arquitetura/residenciaprojetada-por-vilanova-artigas-em-sao-paulo-e-tombada

78

Taques Bittencourt house, access to the patio, found at https://www.arcoweb.com.br/noticias/arquitetura/residenciaprojetada-por-vilanova-artigas-em-sao-paulo-e-tombada

79

Taques Bittencourt house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

80

Taques Bittencourt house, entrance to the house, found at https://www.arcoweb.com.br/noticias/arquitetura/residenciaprojetada-por-vilanova-artigas-em-sao-paulo-e-tombada

81

Taques Bittencourt house, view from the house to the street, found at https://www.arcoweb.com.br/noticias/arquitetura/residenciaprojetada-por-vilanova-artigas-em-sao-paulo-e-tombada

82

Taques Bittencourt house, position diagram, created by the author

83

Taques Bittencourt house, volume diagram, created by the author

84

Taques Bittencourt house, program diagram, created by the author

85

229

86

Taques Bittencourt house, envelope diagram, created by the author

87

Americano house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

88

Americano house, front view, found at https://www.nelsonkon.com.br/casa-oscar-americano/

89

Americano house, view of the patio, found at https://www.terra.com.br/noticias/brasil/cidades/prefeiturade-sp-tomba-sede-da-fundacao-maria-luisa-e-oscar-americano, b9fd9f85a539529a3c409bb6206c769818ml97nx.html

90

Americano house, view from the patio, found at h t t p s : / / w w w. v i t r u v i u s . c o m . b r / r e v i s t a s / r e a d / arquiteturismo/07.075/4755Ver

91

Americano house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

92

Americano house, view from the patio 2, found at https://www.archilovers.com/projects/84010/fundacao-oscaramericano.html

93

Americano Bittencourt house, position diagram, created by the author

94

Americano Bittencourt house, volume diagram, created by the author

95

Americano Bittencourt house, program diagram, created by the author 230

Americano Bittencourt house, envelope diagram, created by the author

96

Delgado Perez house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

97

Delgado Perez house, front facade, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/766189/classicos-daarquitetura-residencia-castor-delgado-perez-rino-levi

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Delgado Perez house, view from the patio, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/766189/classicos-daarquitetura-residencia-castor-delgado-perez-rino-levi

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Delgado Perez house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

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Delgado Perez house, position diagram, created by the author

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Delgado Perez house, volume diagram, created by the author

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Delgado Perez house, program diagram, created by the author

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Delgado Perez house, envelope diagram, created by the author

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King house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

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King house, view from the patio, found at http://www.leonardofinotti.com/projects/king-s-house

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King house, view from the footbridge, found at

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http://www.leonardofinotti.com/projects/king-s-house 108

King house, view from the living room, found at http://www.leonardofinotti.com/projects/king-s-house

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King house, view from the roof, found at http://www.leonardofinotti.com/projects/king-s-house

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King house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

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King house, position diagram, created by the author

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King house, volume diagram, created by the author

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King house, program diagram, created by the author

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King house, envelope diagram, created by the author

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Bela Vista house, view from the terrace, found at https://www.bernardesarq.com.br/projeto/belavista/

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Section of Osaka Pavillion, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/624060/classicos-daarquitetura-pavilhao-do-brasil-em-osaka-paulo-mendes-darocha-e-equipe?ad_medium=gallery

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Mube, view of the spanned slab, found at https://divisare.com/projects/207144-paulo-mendes-darocha-leonardo-finotti-mube

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Sevilla Pavilion section http://www.spbr.arq.br/portfolio-items/pavilhao-do-brasil-na232

expo-92/

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Sevilla Pavilion model, http://www.spbr.arq.br/portfolio-items/pavilhao-do-brasil-naexpo-92/

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Weekend house in Sao Paulo, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/758595/casa-de-fim-desemana-em-sao-paulo-spbr

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Delta house, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/765581/casa-deltabernardes-arquitetura

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House in Ribeirao Preto Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

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House in Ribeirao Preto, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

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House in Ribeirao Preto, car access, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/796261/casa-em-ribeiraopreto-mmbb-arquitetos-plus-spbr-arquitetos

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House in Ribeirao Preto, view from the patio looking at the entrance, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/796261/casa-em-ribeiraopreto-mmbb-arquitetos-plus-spbr-arquitetos

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House in Ribeirao Preto, view from the patio looking at the living room, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/796261/casa-em-ribeirao-

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preto-mmbb-arquitetos-plus-spbr-arquitetos 128

House in Ribeirao Preto, position diagram, created by the author

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House in Ribeirao Preto, volume diagram, created by the author

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House in Ribeirao Preto, program diagram, created by the author

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House in Ribeirao Preto, envelope diagram, created by the author

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House in Orlandia Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

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House in Orlandia, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

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House in Orlandia, front facade, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/794490/casa-e-salao-decabeleireiros-em-orlandia-spbr-arquitetos

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House in Orlandia, view of the patio from the ground floor, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/794490/casa-e-salao-decabeleireiros-em-orlandia-spbr-arquitetos

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House in Orlandia, view of the backyard, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/794490/casa-e-salao-decabeleireiros-em-orlandia-spbr-arquitetos

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House in Orlandia, view of the patio from the living room, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/794490/casa-e-salao-de234

cabeleireiros-em-orlandia-spbr-arquitetos

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House in Orlandia, view from the patio looking at the kitchen, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/794490/casa-e-salao-decabeleireiros-em-orlandia-spbr-arquitetos

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House in Orlandia, position diagram, created by the author

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House in Orlandia, volume diagram, created by the author

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House in Orlandia, program diagram, created by the author

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House in Orlandia, envelope diagram, created by the author

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ML house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

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ML house, technical drawings, reproduced by the author

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ML house, front facade, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/755746/casa-ml-bernardesjacobsen

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ML house, access to the dormitories, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/755746/casa-ml-bernardesjacobsen

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ML house, access to living room, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/755746/casa-ml-bernardesjacobsen

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ML house, view of the balcony, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/755746/casa-ml-bernardesjacobsen

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ML house, position diagram, created by the author

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ML house, volume diagram, created by the author

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ML house, program diagram, created by the author

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ML house, envelope diagram, created by the author

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Bela Vista house Orthophoto, taken and edited by the author from Google Earth Pro

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Bela Vista house, front facade, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/928966/casa-bela-vistabernardes-arquitetura

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Bela Vista house, view from the terrace, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/928966/casa-bela-vistabernardes-arquitetura

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Bela Vista house, view of the patio from the ground floor, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/928966/casa-bela-vistabernardes-arquitetura

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Bela Vista house, technical drawings I, reproduced by the author

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Bela Vista house, technical drawings II, reproduced by the author 236

Bela Vista house, position diagram, created by the author

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Bela Vista house, volume diagram, created by the author

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Bela Vista house, view of the patio from the lower level, found at https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/928966/casa-bela-vistabernardes-arquitetura

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Bela Vista house, program diagram, created by the author

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Bela Vista house, envelope diagram, created by the author

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Casa studies comparative diagram

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Biographical notes

AndrĂŠ Fonseca Passos graduated from his BArch degree at Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro in 2016. During his Bachelor studies, he worked as a teaching assistant in core design studios and technical drawing disciplines.

In the end of the year 2015, he presented his BArch thesis Urban Endosmosis, available at: <https://issuu.com/andrepassos0/docs/_caderno_ final_arq1110_andre_passos>.

The thesis received maximum vote, was nominated for the 27th Opera Prima Prize (equivalent to the national Archiprix) and was presented to younger students in the following years.

After the graduation, he took part as a research assistant for the development of the discipline Space and Thought under the tutoring of the Professor LĂ­gia Saramago and worked as an independent architect.

As an intern, he worked at CAMPO (Rio de Janeiro) and Falcao de Campos (Lisbon), the latter having received a grant to undergo the International training program of Politecnico Milano (Mantova).

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my family for the unconditional support during this Master course, Professor Angelo Lorenzi for his interest in the research and instigating conversations, PhD Sebastiano Marconcini for his dedication and attention on each detail of the work and Stela de Oliveira for her caution in the text revision.

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Politecnico Milano Polo Territoriale di Mantova, 2020

Politecnico Milano Polo Territoriale di Mantova, 2020