LINA BO BARDI
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1914 1992 BRAZIL
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LINA BO BARDI 1914-1992 WORK PRESENTED BY OLGA KUZMINA
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Lina Bo Bardi was an italian-born outstanding modernist architect, who worked trough all her life, elaborating projects non-stop till she was 78. She permanently moved to Brazill, so the main body of work was realised there, and her recognition was found. However she was not only an architect- in addition to illustrator, set designer, writer, curator and visual artist, she understood the Brazilian culture, distributing a modern spirit that transformed the ways of understanding art and architecture in Brazil. This way she produced a powerful social-cultural work using creator’s tools.
The breadth and diversity of her thinking is extraordinary for any multidisciplinary architect of the time. She was someone who could work with whatever was at hand, including on one occasion off-cuts from the building of stage sets. As she declared to a journalist who interviewed her in 1989, “I make myself alone. I am curious and this quality broadens my horizons.� 4
Though fewer than 20 of her architectural projects were built, their social and conceptual meaning is deep, broad, and in direct communication with the many other types of design she developed. All her work is loaded with a civic-collective meaning, that is, she seeks communication and use by the people, for for her “ true freedom can only be collective. A freedom aware of social reality�.
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1914 1939
5th December: Achillina Bo is born in Rome Lina graduates from the Rome School of Architecture: The Maternity and Infancy Care Centre is her final piece.
1940
Lina moves to Milan and begins to work with architect Carlo Pagani. She collaborates with architect and designer Gio Ponti on the magazine Lo Stile.
1943
Lina becomes deputy director of Domus and Quaderni di Domus with Carlo Pagani, until the magazine’s suspension in January 1945. The Allied bombing of Milan destroys the city, including the studio on Via Gesù. Lina works closely with several architects and intellectuals who support the Resistance.
1946
Lina moves to Rome and marries Pietro Maria Bardi. In October the couple travel to South America and permanently move there.
1947
Assis Chateaubriand invites Pietro Maria Bardi to establish and run a Museum of Art. São Paulo is chosen despite Lina’s preference for Rio de Janeiro. MASP (The Museum of Art of São Paulo) is established on 2nd October. Lina designs the conversion of the building into a museum.
1950
Lina, together with her husband, founds ‘Habitat magazine’ – Revista das Artes no Brasil
1951 1955
Lina becomes a Brazilian citizen. Lina designs and builds her home Casa de Vidro and develops the design for the Bardi´s Bowl Chair. Lina designs a number of projects (all not constructed): the Taba Guaianases building (with Pier Luigi Nervi), sketches for Casas Econômicas and a design for the Museu à Beira do Oceano in São Vicente, where Lina uses the idea of transparency, later employed in the MASP project. Lina becomes a lecturer for two years in the Architecture and Urbanism Faculty, São Paulo University (FAU USP). 6
1957
Lina writes a dissertation ‘Propedeutic Contribution to the Teaching of the Theory of Architecture’. Following the demolition of the Trianon, Lina begins work on the second MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo). She designs Dr Mattos Felloni’s surgery and produces studies for a beach house (Casa de Praia).
1958
Lina designs Valeria Piacentini Cirell’s house in São Paulo; Casa do Chame-Chame (House of Nature) and the home of sculptor Mario Cravo in Salvador.
1959
Lina works with theatre director Martim Gonçalves Eros, designing the exhibition Bahia no Ibirapuera. The governor of Bahia invites her to direct the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (MAM BA) in Salvador. She designs the restoration of the Solar de Unhão and its conversion into the museum headquarters.
1963
As the restoration was finished, Lina moves the MAM BA to the Solar do Unhão. She establishes the Museum of Popular Art at Unhão and develops plans of create the School of Industrial Design.
1964
MAM BA is invaded by the military and used for the Subversion Exhibition. Lina returns to São Paulo where develops a residence of Casa Cirell. A military coup overthrows President João Goulart, marking the beginning of the military regime in Brazil.
1966
Lina takes over the construction of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), developing the adaptations and working on the design details.
1968 1974
The new MASP is opened, with a visit by Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Brazil.
1976
Lina designs the Church of the Holy Spirit of Cerrado in Uberlândia (completed in 1982), marking the start of her collaboration with André Vainer and Marcelo Ferraz.
During these years Lina collaborates with film and theater directors as a costume and scene architecture designer and as an art director.
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1977 1978 1980 1982 1985
Lina begins the SESC Leisure Centre – Pompéia Factory project with Vainer and Ferraz. Lina, Vainer and Ferraz design the Capela Santa Maria dos Anjos in Vargem Grande Paulista. Lina begins sketches for the Teatro Oficina, initially with Marcelo Suzuki (until 1984) and then with Edson Elito. Lina enters the Anhangabaú Valley competition with the Anhangabaú Tobogã project. She collaborates with Vainer and Ferraz to design the new buildings for MAM SP in Ibirapuera. The Church of the Holy Spirit of Cerrado is opened and the first phase of the SESC Pompéia Leisure Centre is completed. The design of the second stage begins. Lina curates multipe of exhibitions taken plane in SESC Pompéia.
1986
The second stage of SESC Pompéia, the Sports Centre, is opened. Lina, Vainer, Ferraz and Suzuki start work on the restoration designs of the Teatro Politheama Jundiaí (completed in 1995). The City Hall of Salvador da Bahia invites Lina to conduct a series of new projects. With Ferraz and Suzuki she develops a recovery plan for the historic centre (some of the specific structures are completed).
1988
Again with Ferraz and Suzuki, Lina designs the Casa de Olodum in Salvador (completed in 1991) and the Community Centre of the LBA in Cananéia. She collaborates with photographer Pierre Verger, curating África Negra at MASP, and enters the competition to design the Centro Cultural de Belem in Lisbon.
1991 1992
Lina designs her last projects: a competition proposal for the Brazil Pavilion at the Universal Exposition of Seville. 20th March: Lina Bo Bardi dies in the Glass House. 8
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Political, economic and social context Throughout her career, Bo Bardi witnessed significant cultural and economic transitions marked by political tension and unequal social realities in both Italy and brazil. When she graduated from architectural school, in 1939, Italian modern architecture was in crisis and the nation was about to enter World War II. She left Rome and followed her Milanese classmate and boyfriend to the more progressive north. Away from what she described as the stale environment of the capital, she received a second education in Milan, where she worked as an editor and freelance designer, struggling to create constructive alternatives and humanize design in the middle of massive physical, social and moral devastation. In 1946, she decided, rather impulsively, to marry the influential art dealer and journalist Pietro Maria Bardi and join him in a commercial venture to sell his art collection in South America. Upon arriving in Brazil, he finds a moment favorable to intellectual and artistic production. The ideals undertaken since the week of Modern Art of 1922 were in full consolidation and characters of the Brazilian culture were assuming important political positions, contributing to undertake a project of modernization of the country. She did not intend to leave Italy permanently, but in the new world she found a novel environment, rich with opportunity, and she collaborated with her husband in the creation of the Museu de Arte de SĂŁo Paulo (MASP),which would become a powerhouse for the renovation and diffusion of modern culture in Brazil.
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POLITICS CULTURE
BRAZIL
POLITICS
ITALIA
at the time. 1943 The Allied bombing of Milan destroys the city, including the studio were was working Lina on Via Gesù. Lina works closely with several architects and intellectuals who support the Resistance. 1945 Lina takes part in the First National Meeting for Reconstruction in Milan, alerting people to the indifference of public opinion on the subject, which for her covers both the physical and moral reconstruction of the country.
1930 The Revolution led by Getúlio Vargas marks the beginning of a nationalist government in Brazil. 1937 The Estado Novo (New State) is proclaimed in Brazil. 1939 Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer develop the Brazil Pavilion for the Universal Exhibition, New York. 1945 The Estado Novo ends in Brazil. Getúlio Vargas is deposed and elections are held for the Presidency and the Constituent Assembly. 1954 In the midst of a political crisis, Vargas commits suicide. 1956 Elected by direct vote, Juscelino Kubitschek assumes the Presidency of Brazil and initiates a policy of accelerating industrial development. 1960 The Inauguration of Brasilia. 1964 A military coup overthrows President João Goulart, marking the beginning of the military regime in Brazil. 1978 The Amnesty Law is passed in Brazil, allowing the return of all exiles. 1980 With the growth of the movement for democracy in Brazil, a constitutional amendment is passed, restoring direct elections for state governors. 1985 President-elect Tancredo Neves is hospitalized the day before his inauguration and Vice President-elect José Sarney takes office, marking the end of military rule. 1922 Modern Art Week in São Paulo. 1927 Gregori Warchavchik builds Brazil’s first ‘Modernist House’ in Rua Santa Cruz, São Paulo. 1928 The first Italian Exhibition of Rational Architecture in Rome. 1933 Pietro Maria Bardi and Le Corbusier attend the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM) 1936 Le Corbusier and Lucio Costa (among others) design the building for the Ministry of Education and Health. Architect Giuseppe Pagano organizes the exhibition Rural Italian Architecture at the VI Milan Triennial, looking for the ethical roots of Italy’s cultural and political recovery in its popular architecture. 1943 The exhibition Brazil Builds takes place at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; its catalogue promotes Brazilian Modern Architecture worldwide. 1956 The First National Exhibition of Concrete Art is held at São Paulo’s MAM. 1961 Architects Vilanova Artigas and Carlos Cascaldi develop the FAU USP design of the São Paulo University Campus.
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A magazine founded by Lina Bo and Pietro Bardi in 1950
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Selected architectural projects Casa de Vidro (The Glass House), 1951: Bo Bardi’s residence Solar do Unhão, 1959: sugar mill converted to a craft museum in Bahia Museu de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo Museum of Art), 1968 Centro de Lazer Fábrica da Pompéia (Pompéia Factory Leisure Centre), 1986 Solar do Unhão, 1959: sugar mill converted to a craft museum in Bahia Teatro Gregório de Matos, Salvador 1986–87 Bardi’s Bowl, 1951: Chair
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THE GLASS HOUSE 1950–1951
The Glass House is recognized as one of the most notable works of Bo Bardi, and a pivotal contribution to the golden age of Brazilian Modernism. It was also a residence of the architect and her husband for some four decades, till she passed away in 1992. With its harmonies of light and geometry, density and apparent weightlessness, she sought to create a space that would involve domestic living with the natural world. Today, the house serves as the headquarters of the late architect’s foundation.
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MUSEU DE ARTE DE SÃO PAULO 1968
The design for MASP made the site one of the greatest landmarks in São Paulo. It’s monumental aesthetic is the result of an ingenious engineering scheme: the massive structure of the museum resembles on two enormous red beams, rising from pools of water.
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As radical as an exterior construction, Lina designed a revolutionary system of exhibition. Free from the walls, the artworks hang in the middle of the huge gallery space, meaning that visitors can work out their own routes around the artworks and the space. _
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SECS POMPEIA 1977-1986
culture and leisure center
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“Put people in the center of the projet” SECS Pompéia is a social and cultural center formed out of an abandoned factory situated within industrial São Paulo. It’s a powerful example of the potential for adaptive reuse within modernism, that gives the place a new dynamic and filling it with a social meaning. The building is generous, allowing a happy coexistence for distinct people of different ages and for multiple activities. Old men play chess here, and children play with building blocks there. You can eat in a popular canteen, and you can sunbathe on a boardwalk called ”thebeach”. Many facets of the design come from Bo Bardi’s observations of how the plaza surrounding the building was already being used by people. She takes inspiration from meditations on how to better provide utility to the people, rather that turning the site into something completely new.
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SOLAR DO UNHÃO 1963
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Prototype of the “Frei Egidio” chair “Bola” armchair with black iron frame in Tauari wood. Designed by Lina Bo and leather seat and back with lace-up detailing. Bardi, Marcelo Ferraz and Marcelo Designed by Lina Bo Bardi, Brazil, 1951 Suzuki, Brazil, 1987
Lounge chair in Brazilian red vinyl seats and armrests. LINA BO BARDI, BRAZIL, 1960S
Manifactured by R&Company, hardwood with United States
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Teatro Gregório de Matos, Salvador
1986–87
Teatro Gregório de Matos, Salvador
1986–87
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Bardi’s Bowl, 1951
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Gender Issues at the time It is clear that Lina Bo Bardi was one of the major female architects of the 20th century and this claim is both correct and insulting: she does not need the qualifier of her sex to be seen as one of the outstanding practitioners in the history of modernism. She must have encountered many difficulties in her career, as a woman in a field still gendered as male, a European in Brazil, and a modernist outnumbered by traditionalists. Did gender have an impact on Bo Bardi’s work? Undoubtedly. She may have built more than other women architects, but she was given fewer important commissions than her male peers in Brazil.
Despite the extraordinary oeuvre she has left behind, Bo Bardi has not gained the recognition she deserves in surveys on Brazilian architecture, with their perennial focus on Oscar Niemeyer, Lacio Costa, and Affonso Eduardo Reidy. Nor has she received the professional accolades and scholarly attention given to Eileen Gray, Lilly Reich, Charlotte Perriand, or Ray Eames, even though no woman of her generation built as much. What distinguishes her work radically from that of equally famous architects is not only gender and style but above all political praxis: the kind of projects she accepted, and the issues of patronage, technology, and typology that they implied.
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Quotes “It is necessary to be free of “Architects, like oth- “I never disregard the surrealthe” moorings “, not to throw ism of the Brazilian people, er professionals … away the past and all its histotheir inventions, their pleasure ry; what is needed is to con- depend on the coun- in gathering together, dancing, sider the past as a historical try’s socioeconomic singing. Therefore I dedicated gift. The past, seen as a hismy work at Pompéia to the torical gift is still alive, is a gift structure. In order to youngsters, to the children and that helps to avoid the various to the third age: all together” change, one needs clutches. In the face of the historical present, our task is “The artist’s freedom has “To standardize to forge another “true” gift, and always been” individual “, but for this we need not a deep means to extend the true freedom can only be knowledge of the expert, but collective. A liberty aware of possibility” an ability to understand the social reality, which overturns past historically, to know what “When we design, even as a the frontiers of aesthetics, will serve the new situations of student, it is important that the concentration camp of today that present themselves Western civilization; a freedom a building serves a purpose to you, and all this is not only and that it has the connotation bound to the limitations and learned in the books “ great achievements of scientif- of use. It is necessary that the work does not fall from the sky ic practice (scientific practice, over its inhabitants, but rather not technology decayed in expresses a need. You should technocracy). To romantic suialways look for the ideal, decide, it is urgent to oppose the cent object, which could also great task of environmental be defined by the old term planning, from urban planning ‘beauty.’” and architecture to industrial design and other cultural “Everything that can manifestations. A reintegration, a simplified unification of the make misery bearcomponents of culture. “
able should be destroyed,”
“Today we have reached a deadlock and you live a very” complicated “period of the history of architecture. You do not know what to look at, what to do, and you think that everything is allowed. “
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Collaborations with other architects/ designers
Lina has been elaborating through her whole carrier - project ranging room theatricals sets to the first Art Museum in Brazil, as some it consider. The were magazines, groups of architects, in particular like Marcelo Suzuki, AndrÊ Vainer and Marcelo Ferraz. With three of these architects she’s created a great number of late works - chapel, restorational projects of historic centre, Teatro Oficina, restaurants and bars, among many non-built projects.
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Bibliographic references Lina Bo Bardi -Wikipedia Harvard Design magazine: fAfter the flood Lina Bo Bardi - architectuul.com Lina Bo Bardi and the Architecture of Everyday Culture - placesjournal.org Lina Bo Bardi - Building Shaped By Love - theguardian.com Prolific Midcentury Brazilian Architect Lina Bo Bardi is Having a Moment curbed.com AD Classics: São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) Lina Bo Bardi’s Glass House - pinupmagazine.org Citações de Lina Bo Bardi - archdaily.com.br Moder Master Lina Bo Bardi’s Bowl Chair Makes A Comeback - dwell.com Lina Bo Bardi’s Glass House and the Multiple Worlds It Contains hyperallergic.com Inside Legendary Architect Lina Bo Bardi’s Glass Hideaway in a Brazilian Jungle - artsy.net 7 Things You May Not Know About MASP - artsandculture.google.com https://bardisbowlchair.arper.com http://www.r-and-company.com https://sites.utexas.edu/utsoa-deepfocus/2013/03/focus-on-brazil-saopaulo-museum-of-art-masp/ https://www.jcms-journal.com/articles/10.5334/jcms.1021221/ https://revistausina.com/instantaneos/a-arquitetura-de-lina-bo-bardi/
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Production cost
(euro) Paper - 150 sheets - 2,10 Staples - 1,05 â‚Ź Printing - 0 â‚Ź Time investigation - 2 days designing - one month printing - 20 mins
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