Modern Architecture and Landscape Design in Brazil with Vera Beatriz Siqueira

May 27, 2021

From selected moments of the modern architectural and landscape design experience in Brazil, this lecture reflects on the formation of the canon of what came to be known as the Brazilian Style or Modern Tropical Garden. It covers a temporal arch from the 1920s to the 1970s and shows iconic works in different parts of Brazil, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Recife, and Brasilia.

works

Oscar Niemeyer, Grande Hotel, Ouro Preto, 1938

Gregori and Mina Warchavchik, Modernist House, Rua Itápolis, São Paulo, 1930

Le Corbusier, Ministry of Education and Health building, Rio de Janeiro, 1936

Roberto Burle Marx, Rooftop garden for the Ministry of Education and Health building, Rio de Janeiro

Roberto Burle Marx, Copacabana boardwalk, 1970

Villanova Artigas, FAU/Usp building, 1961

Villanova Artigas, Elza Berquó residence, 1967

Photo of Brasilia construction, including Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia Cathedral, 1950s

Lelé, Sarah Hospital building, Brasília, 1980

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Vera Beatriz Siqueira is an art historian and professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. She is the author of several books and articles on modern Brazilian art, including some on Roberto Burle Marx’s artistic and landscaping work. She was a guest scholar at the Getty Research Institute in 2012 and 2020. She is currently the coordinator of Arts graduate programs in Brazil at CAPES, an agency of the Ministry of Education.