Lina Bo Bardi
'Architecture and architectural freedom are above all a social issue that must be seen from inside a political structure, not from outside it.'
Lina Bo Bardi, born Achillina Bo
(December 5, 1914 – March 20, 1992), was an Italian-born
Brazilian modernist architect. A prolific architect and designer, she
devoted her working life, most of it spent in Brazil, to
promoting the social and cultural potential of architecture and
design . While she studied under radical Italian architects, she quickly
became intrigued with Brazilian vernacular design and how it could
influence a modern Brazilian architecture. During her lifetime it was
difficult to be accepted among the local Brazilian architects, because
she was both a "foreigner" and a woman.
Know more about her
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Glass House
Nestled in the exuberant vegetation of Mata Atlántica, in the neighborhood of Morumbi, São Paulo, the Glass House was designed by Lina Bo Bardi as a gathering place for artists, and as her own home. The main facade, transparent and built on stilts, approaches the ideals of the Modern Movement, while the rear part, opaque and resting on the terrain, is a solid structure typical of vernacular architecture. This duality is also reflected in the floor plan of the house, where the public areas, in contact with the environment, are separated from the private living areas, sheltered in the background.
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São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP)
When Lina Bo Bardi received the commission to build a new museum of art on São Paulo’s Terraço do Trianon, she was given the job under one condition: under no circumstances could the building block the site’s panoramic vistas of the lower-lying parts of the city. This rule, instituted by the local legislature, sought to protect what had become an important urban gathering space along Avenida Paulista, the city’s main financial and cultural artery. Undeterred, Bo Bardi came up with a solution that was simple and powerful. She designed a building with a massive split through its midsection, burying half of it below the terrace and lifting the other half into the sky. As a result, the plaza remained open and unobstructed, and in 1968, the iconic São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) was born.
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Centro de Lazer Fábrica da Pompéia
The Centro de Lazer Fábrica da Pompéia (now called the SESC Pompéia) was one of Bo Bardi's largest and most important projects, in addition to being an early example of adaptive reuse. The site was a former steel drum and refrigerator factory in São Paulo, and was to be redeveloped into a leisure and recreation center for the working class. SESC is a Brazilian non-governmental organization linked to national unions, created in the 1940s to provide workers with health services and cultural activities. Completed in several stages between 1977 and 1986, Bo Bardi combined the existing structure with additions of her own design.
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Teatro Oficina
The Teatro Oficina was designed by Bo Bardi in 1984. She was commissioned to turn a burnt office building in São Paulo into a theatre. The building was designed for the theatre group with the same name whom were an important part of the Tropicalia movement of the late 1960s. Tropicalia strived for change and a way for Brazil to escape its colonial past. They used theater to try and understand their Brazilian heritage. Bo Bardi designed the new space almost completely out of painted scaffolding. The design references the construction of sets in a theatre space.
The theatre does not have conventional seats, which leads to bad sight lines. Architectural critiques have stated that this does not take away from the theatre experience but enhances it with intensity. The heavy wooden seats are designed in a circle at center stage and the stage is very narrow. Initially, the theatre was designed for experimental director, Zé Celso, who has said that the idea of the space came to him in an acid trip. The theatre is often used by experimental performers who work around the space. The design of the theatre is meant to make the viewer feel as though they are engaged with the act on the stage.