If the presence, up to relatively recent years, of only two schools of architecture (in Rio and Sao Paulo) may have acted as a factor in homogenizing the Brazilian environment, it is also necessary to remember two great differentiating factors: on the one hand the almost continental dimension of the country and the presence of numerous large and medium-sized cities; on the other hand, continuous immigration, including intellectual ones, from European and Asian countries.
Thus, it is not surprising that even the dates of birth of modern architecture, recorded in Brazil, are more than one: 1928 in São Paulo, with the first villas of a Russian immigrant, G. Warchavchik (b. 1896; in Rome he was assistant to M. Piacentini until 1923); 1935, instead, in Recife, with various public works by the group directed by L. Nunes (who died prematurely in 1937) and which included R. Burle-Marx (b.1909), an internationally famous painter and landscape architect, and J Cardozo (1897-1985), structural engineer, but also appreciated poet, destined to link his name to that of O. Niemeyer for the main public works of Brasília; finally, 1936 in Rio de Janeiro, with the ABI offices of the brothers Marcelo (1908-1964) and Milton (1914-1953) Roberto (joined since 1941 by a third brother, Mauricio). If even, always for Rio, team headed by L. Costa and mass, by the unanimous will of the designers, under the supervision of Le Corbusier (who, already with the first trip in 1929, became the idol of new architects in Latin America).
Costa (b. 1902) can be taken as a symbol of continuity in Brazilian architecture: a convinced supporter of the return to the native tradition, in the 1920s, he converted to modernism in 1930 and opened a studio with Warchavchik. In 1936 he directed the work of the Ministerio da Educação: a building to be considered, again, not only a masterpiece of modern architecture, but also – and above all in the wall decoration in azulejo (by C. Portinari and R. Burle-Marx) – an example of happy mediation with tradition. In the same building site, with Niemeyer, four other young architects mature, among which AE Reidy (1909-1964) and J. Machado Moreira (1904-1970), authors, in the old Brazilian capital, of buildings and complexes of the most interesting (see rio de janeiro, in this App.). The names of Costa and Niemeyer return to approach, in 1939, for the Brazil pavilion at the New York International Exposition, and again for the birth of Brasília.
The new capital of the country, which had been planned in the interior since the proclamation of independence, was built by the will of J. Kubitschek during his presidential term, between January 1956 and April 21, 1960, on the anniversary of Christmas. From Rome. Niemeyer had been Kubitschek’s designer since he was governor of Minas Gerais, in 1940, and could have also drafted the master plan of the capital, but instead he preferred to rely on a competition that saw Costa’s victory and the rapid and unified realization, if not the entire city, the main public buildings (all by Niemeyer; only the bus station is Costa’s). This new capital, arrived in 1985, with over 1,500,000 residents, to the role of the sixth city of Brazil, was judged at its birth (and with a certain moralism by the World Bank) a reckless and wasteful enterprise, but instead falls within the Brazilian national tradition: preceded not only by an endless number of functional cities (rubber, cotton, coffee, artificial basins for energy production), but also from two other capitals: that of the state of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (project A. Reis, 1894), and that of Goias, the state that also hosts the new federal district, Goiania (project A. Correa Lima, 1934). Moreover, the deep attachment of the Brazilians to their capital is expressed in having the Federal Government asked UNESCO and obtained, in 1986, to inscribe Brasília (like Venice and other masterpieces of the past) as the cultural heritage of all humanity. but instead falls within the Brazilian national tradition: preceded not only by an endless number of functional cities (rubber, cotton, coffee, artificial basins for energy production), but also by two other capitals: that of the state of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (project A. Reis, 1894), and that of Goias, the state that also hosts the new federal district, Goiania (project A. Correa Lima, 1934). Moreover, the deep attachment of the Brazilians to their capital is expressed in having the Federal Government asked UNESCO and obtained, in 1986, to inscribe Brasília (like Venice and other masterpieces of the past) as the cultural heritage of all humanity. but instead falls within the Brazilian national tradition: preceded not only by an endless number of functional cities (rubber, cotton, coffee, artificial basins for energy production), but also by two other capitals: that of the state of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (project A. Reis, 1894), and that of Goias, the state that also hosts the new federal district, Goiania (project A. Correa Lima, 1934). Moreover, the deep attachment of the Brazilians to their capital is expressed in having the Federal Government asked UNESCO and obtained, in 1986, to inscribe Brasília (like Venice and other masterpieces of the past) as the cultural heritage of all humanity. artificial basins for energy production), but also from two other capitals: that of the state of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (project A. Reis, 1894), and that of Goias, the state that also hosts the new federal district, Goiania (project A. Correa Lima, 1934). Moreover, the deep attachment of the Brazilians to their capital is expressed in having the Federal Government asked UNESCO and obtained, in 1986, to inscribe Brasília (like Venice and other masterpieces of the past) as the cultural heritage of all humanity. artificial basins for energy production), but also from two other capitals: that of the state of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (project A. Reis, 1894), and that of Goias, the state that also hosts the new federal district, Goiania (project A. Correa Lima, 1934). Moreover, the deep attachment of the Brazilians to their capital is expressed in having the Federal Government asked UNESCO and obtained, in 1986, to inscribe Brasília (like Venice and other masterpieces of the past) as the cultural heritage of all humanity. For Brazil democracy and rights, please check localbusinessexplorer.com.
After the Brasília era, the last thirty years have seen – together with the emergence of local architecture schools in Salvador, Recife, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, etc. – a certain pre-eminence, not only quantitative, of Paulist architecture, which has accompanied the rise of São Paulo to the top of the country since the 1960s.
In this regard, the work of R. Levi (1901-1965) should be mentioned, whose name is perpetuated today in the Studio, directed by R. Cerqueira Cesar and L. Carvalho Franco; and so is the work of Studio Croce, Aflalo and Gasperini, in which GC Gasperini (b.1926) still works today but, above all, L. Bo Bardi, author of two of the most beautiful works created in the Paulist metropolis: the Museum de Arte, in the very central Paulista Avenue (1957-69), and the Pompeia Recreation Center (1984-86).
Also Paulista is the school started by J. Baptista Vilanova Artigas (1915-1984), author of the local faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (1961-69). Among his pupils, we should remember P. Mendes da Rocha (b. 1928) and J. Guedes (b. 1932), who continued the mastery of the schoolmaster in the virtuosic and brutalist use of reinforced concrete. Among the youngest, always active in San Paolo, we must remember M. Fragelli and F. Marcondes, authors of the most beautiful stations of the Metro; J. Marcondes Cupertino, author of the large ITAU’-Conceção banking complex; C. Bratke, son of another valiant Paulist architect, Oswaldo.
Leaving aside Rio, in the rest of the Brazil the work of the following architects can be considered as significant: F. de Assis Couto dos Reis (b. 1926); AND. Maia (b. 1942); JP De Bem (b. 1942); CM Fayet and the partner CL Gomes de Araújo.
