Architectural Presentation - ARCHITECT BURLE MARX

ABOUT THE ARCHITECT

Roberto Burle Marx was born in the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil on 4 august 1909.
He learned various languages such as potuguese, german, french, english, spanish and italian fluently.
Since childhood he was interested in music and play.
He was a painter, poet and musician along with landscape designer.

A local brazilian woman

Mangroove plantations

A drawing in India ink
In his initial paintings his subject was the focal point just as it had been in his gardens.But during 1940’s, his attention was shifted frpm narrative to purely visual
Later in his paintings he abstracted pictoral forms from the real one.
Eg :In the adjoining painting the complex lines that indicate ambiguous anatomical contours.

DURING HIS TIME

Burl Marx family arrived in Europe during the period of great change
In the year 1928the battle of modernism was waged. It was an essential urban phenomenon thriving on a period of relative peace and economic progress.
Photography became an art form in these years which helped to emphasize on light.
In the year 1927saw the inauguration of a department of architecture directed by Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus.
The art historian Sigfried Giedion founded CIAM(the international congress of modern architecture) in Swizerland in the year 1928

LANDSCAPE



Italian gardens
Burle Marx’s gardens were described as paintings by the critics.
His works are diverse and prolific due to the fact that he was a landscape designer, poet musician and painter and painting, sculpture and architecture all came in his gardens together.
The classical gardens have a extreme geometry, its forms opposing those of nature.

By contrast English gardens aims to reproduce nature so that all the artifice are hidden.

He paid particular attention to the geographical and topographical features.
Burle Marx created his gardens with the idea that his involvement should go unnoticed.
For example he may divert a river so that it looked as if it had always flowed that way.
Nevertheless his style and imprint were always unmistakable.
He worked with the colors and textures of foliage to achieve a more intense, contrasting and durable effect.
Burle Marx’s composition also has affinities with Chinese and Japanese gardens, using resources economically, making the most of the texture of minerals, the sculpted shapes of stones, the blooms, etc.

His paintings are gardens where the spirits wander, just as his gardens are drawings where nature takes shape.

PHILOSOPHY

A garden, is organized nature, where the artist aims to bring out the beauty of the colours, the forms, the rhythm, the ordered volumes.It is the establishing of harmony, the creating of contrasts, since the whole is warp and weft in which every element is indensible.
He found his inspiration in the natural world because it offered him purity of non narrative forms.


Garden at Vargem Grande Fazenda, during construction phase
To create a sense of unity between the garden and its surroundings.To interpret the essence of the place, extract its character and make it more expressive, highlighting the intrinsic beauty of the scenery so that it serves as a exterior backdrop.

GARDENS ALONG THE SEAFRONT
Praca Senador Salgado Filho
Gardens of the museum of modern art
Gardens of the Monument to the Fallen of World War 2
Aquarium and the Marina da Gloria
Outerio da Flamengo
Parque do Flamengo
Morro da Viuva restaurant
Praca Indigo Cauhtemoque
Leme, Parca Almirante Julio de Noronha
Copocaba promenade

Parque do Flamengo(1961-65)
Located in Attero Gloria Flamengo- Rio de jeneiro.
Area 1,20,00,000 sq m
In this project a highway was to be provided on narrow strech of coast between the hills and the sea.
The plan was designed by a working group of botanists, engineers and architects.

plan

Bird’s eye view of the area
They had to envisage not only a two speed highway with pedestrian crossings at various levels but also areas designated for recreational activities.
Various stages were designed for music and theatre, tree lined car parks, areas for picnicking, relaxing and playing games




The shady trees and bushes along the paths protect the winds
The zone near the sea slopes down to an artificial beach where the rows of palm trees punctuate the space.
The plant selection was based on blocks of the same species arranged in a harmonious composition of solid and voids.

Largo da carioca (1981-85)


Situated in Rio de janeiro.
Area 2 hectares.
The Largo da Carioca is a giant abstract picture designed to be viewed from the surrounding buildings.
It acts as a focal point for all the converging gardens in the area.
The design was worked around the existing elements in the square – a fountain, a clock tower, ventilation ducts using red, white and black Portuguese stone,grass and water.




Metropolitan cathedral (1968)



It is located in Rio de jeneiro.
The church is a circular structure in the center of sight.
There are four pools ringed with benches and the paving patterns echo the circular shape of the structure.
A large mass of bauhinea orchids climbs the sides of the steps to the main entrance in staggered planters.This is the only part of the scheme to have been realized.
Currently the area is used as car park