Roberto Burle Marx

Roberto Burle Marx ( * August 4, 1909 in São Paulo, † June 4, 1994 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian landscape architect, plant collector and painter.

Life

Roberto Burle Marx was the fourth son of Wilhelm Marx from Trier, German - Jewish descent and the singer and pianist Cecilia Burle. He grew since 1913 in Rio de Janeiro, in an art-loving progressive family. He had a piano and vocal training to become a professional musician with a good clear baritone and initially planned. He later sang like at parties. Burle Marx studied painting at the Escola de Belas Artes, in 1928 /29 in Berlin, where he was strongly influenced by Cubism. Basic knowledge of Brazilian flora he acquired there in the greenhouses of the Botanical Garden in Dahlem during his studies. However, as a landscape architect he was self-taught.

He worked together with the architects Lucio Costa, Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer. In 1932, he put on the roof garden of the house of Alfredo Schwartz in Rio de Janeiro, his first job. 1934 to 1937 he worked in the parks and gardens management of Recife and put 1935 Casa Forte - place, which was designed especially with the Brazilian rain forest plants - then a sensation. The Euclides da Cunha place in the same city, however, is dominated by plants of the local Caatinga, especially cacti.

In 1949 he bought with his brother Siegfried, the 80 -acre farm Sitio Santo Antonio da Bica in Campo Grande south of Rio de Janeiro, where he operated a nursery. He cultivated tropical plants here, which he had collected on his expeditions, to use them as garden plants, including bromeliads, cycads, Dickfußgewächse, Sansevieria, heliconias and anthuriums. The house itself consists of a garden surrounded by beds grassy area with a pond. Door and window lintels of demolished houses from Rio and weathered granite blocks from the environment serve as a design element. He bequeathed the estate to the state in 1985. It is managed today by the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage ( Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional) and can be visited. 1955 founded Burle Marx an architectural office in Rio de Janeiro.

Burle Marx was also active in the Brazilian conservation movement and saw the extermination of native plants with care.

Importance

Burle Marx is considered the founder of modern garden architecture in general and the founder of a specifically Brazilian garden architecture. He used native plants in Brazil to make gardens and parks. A total of 33 species have been named after him, including plant species Begonia burle - marxii, Calathea burle - marxii and Philodendron burle - marxii.

Its gardens are characterized by organic, curved shapes, which are planted with plants of the Neotropics, in rich, warm colors. Burle Marx preferred asymmetric shapes. The overall impression is often of an abstract painting. For Burle Marx garden design "painting with plants". He called for " " A garden must always be a work of art. ". There were often not trained gardeners to garden care available, the planting often had to be kept homogeneous. The architecture of the house is in steady interplay with the design of the garden. Burle Marx also tried to incorporate the garden into the landscape. His preferred plant species counted the tree species Tibouchina urvilleana, daylilies, shrub Beaucarnea recurvata, Setcreasea pallida and the Riesenbromelie Alcantarea imperialis. Individual trees can be used as an accent plant.

In Rio, but should also include 88 gardens that Burle Marx designed to be placed under monument protection.

Works ( selection)

  • Roof garden of the house of Alfredo Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro (1932 )
  • Roof garden of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro (now Palácio Gustavo Capanema ), completed in 1937
  • Casa Forte Square and Euclides da Cunha Square in Recife ( 1937)
  • Salgado Filho Praça Rio de Janeiro (1938 )
  • Planting plan for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York
  • Garden designs for public buildings in Brasilia, including the Ministério the Relaciones Exteriores (1965 ), Ministerio da Justica, Ministerio de Tribunal de Contas and Exército da União
  • Pampulha Park in Belo Horizonte ( 1942)
  • Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo (1954 )
  • Banco Safra, Rua Bela Cintra, Sao Paulo
  • Garden of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (1955 )
  • The 120 -acre Aterra de Flamengo in the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro (1961 ) can be used in cooperation with Emigdyo de Mello Filho, in the mainly indigenous plants, a total of over 200 different species. The park is registered as a national treasure since 1964.
  • Banco National Desenvolvimento Econômico Social, Rio de Janeiro
  • Petrobras building in Rio de Janeiro
  • The 4 km long Calçadão de Copacabana along Avenida Atlântica, abstract ornaments in white limestone and black and red basalt, Rio de Janeiro (1970 ), the first beach promenade of Brazil
  • Garden of the German Embassy in Brasilia, completed in 1971
  • KLCC Park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • Private Garden Vargem Grande Faenza in Areiras, São Paulo (1979 )
  • Largo da Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (1985 )
  • Cascade Garden at Longwood Gardens (1992 )
  • Designs for redevelopment of the Rosa - Luxembourg - Platz in Berlin (1994 )
  • Logo of the Brazilian Tourist Board Embratur
  • Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Brumadinho, Minas Gerais. There is a garden with thousands of tropical plants, the Botanical Garden leads the title since 2010.

Publications

  • Roberto Burle Marx. The modernity of landscape. Actar, Barcelona 2011, ISBN 978-84-92861-67-5.

Exhibitions

  • Countryside and gardens. Roberto Burle Marx, exhibition at the Berlin Pavilion at the zoo of Berlin's main office for green spaces and horticulture in 1976.
  • The Unnatural Art of Garden " retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1991.
  • Roberto Burle Marx, exhibition of the National Group of BDLA Berlin in the Charlottenburg castle in 1989.
  • Landscape architect and artist Roberto Burle Marx, Berlin Green GmbH, Exhibition 1993.
  • Brasilia. Modernist architecture in Brazil, the IFA Gallery in Berlin 2000
  • A Permanencia do Instável ( The permanence of the impermanent ). Rio to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2009

Gallery

Copacabana, paving

Copacabana

Congresso Nacional, Brasilia

Palace of Justice, Brasilia

KLCC Park in Kuala Lumpur ( Malaysia)

Flamengo Park in Rio de Janeiro

Plan of the Flamengo Park

Logo of the Brazilian Tourist Board Embratur

Lúcio Costa Pachypodium Neotropic ecozone Brasília Ibirapuera Park Copacabana (Rio de Janeiro) Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Integrated Authority File
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