Brazil - an essay in concrete
Brazil, an activity-packed birthday sojourn and one that intends to finally explore the wonderful modernist architecture. As a consequence this blog is a bit of a travelogue, but we learned a lot and continue to investigate that extraordinary period even now, while we prepare for our next journey.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
There had been an Architectural Association intention for a thesis back in the day, one that did all the reading and writing but sadly never benefited from the essential visit. The interest then, as it regularly has been since, included an understanding of the society and politics that underlay the new architectural expression during the latter half of the 20C. The groundwork was done in the late 1930’s and 40’s during Vargas’s dictatorship, by numerous Brazilian architects and their newly wealthy residential clients, and then most notably and sensuously by Rio’s Carioca School of Lúcio Costa (1902-1998), Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012), Affonso Reidy (1909-1964). Most famously there then followed the arrival of Kubitschek in 1955, with his post-war ambition to provide ‘Fifty years of progress in Five years’.
Brazil, an activity-packed birthday sojourn and one that intends to finally explore the wonderful modernist architecture. As a consequence this blog is a bit of a travelogue, but we learned a lot and continue to investigate that extraordinary period even now, while we prepare for our next journey.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
There had been an Architectural Association intention for a thesis back in the day, one that did all the reading and writing but sadly never benefited from the essential visit. The interest then, as it regularly has been since, included an understanding of the society and politics that underlay the new architectural expression during the latter half of the 20C. The groundwork was done in the late 1930’s and 40’s during Vargas’s dictatorship, by numerous Brazilian architects and their newly wealthy residential clients, and then most notably and sensuously by Rio’s Carioca School of Lúcio Costa (1902-1998), Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012), Affonso Reidy (1909-1964). Most famously there then followed the arrival of Kubitschek in 1955, with his post-war ambition to provide ‘Fifty years of progress in Five years’.
SAO PAULO
We lodge ourselves in Sao Paulo, arguably the Brazilian city of greatest creative depth, and we take it slowly at first, strolling the surprisingly clean streets to take in the inner suburbs and the old city heart, spotting the famous and the not so well known, getting a feel for the qualities that seem to have burgeoned since our previous short visits.
We cruise Higienopolis. We find the excellent ambition for shared, landscaped ground floor space floating beneath piloti-supported apartments is still well-maintained, but now more often frustrated by a recent desire to barricade the access and landscaping from passing n’er-do-wells and architects looking for a good shot. Vilanova Artigas shines out and we vow to seek out more of his work on our journey.
We cruise Higienopolis. We find the excellent ambition for shared, landscaped ground floor space floating beneath piloti-supported apartments is still well-maintained, but now more often frustrated by a recent desire to barricade the access and landscaping from passing n’er-do-wells and architects looking for a good shot. Vilanova Artigas shines out and we vow to seek out more of his work on our journey.
Condomínio do Edifício Louveira 1950 – Vilanova Artigas (1915-1985) – doubtless the best of the few edifices we visit, not least because the edges are not security-railed to keep the riff-raff out and the landscape and joyful bridges can be enjoyed as intended. |
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Edificio Copan 1966 – Niemeyer’s edifice, huge and slow in the making, remains wrapped in refurbishment netting, as it was 8 years ago when last we were here and apparently has been since 2014, when the mosaic tiles started dropping off. Declared good principally because of its bigness and views, but none too charming for or at the street. |
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Farol Santander 1947 – Plinio Botelho do Amaral’s (1904-1993) vaulting ambition turned into a 161m tall art-deco maquette copy of the Empire State Building midway through construction, amusing and ascendable with a well-maintained banking hall but mostly standing out for the well-crafted exhibitions and skateboard park that now occupy a number of the levels. 
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The Sunday heat is best endured in Parque Ibirapuera 1954, the landscaping ‘inspired’ by Roberto Burle Marx, who’s name crops up interminably, apparently being used as a stamp of design and regulatory approval. (His work is enjoyable but suffers a little from an absence of competition). It’s a joy to walk sandwiched in the cool concrete of the Big Marquee, dodging the skateboarders-skaters-families-dancers, between fine architecture, sharing lemon ice-cream with the laid-back-super-healthy locals that promenade, take countless selfies and only rarely jog in the dappled sunlight.
The parque building collection, a pre-Brasilia Niemeyer testing/playground, each constructed in the final few years of Vargas’ second (democratic) era to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Sao Paulo in 1954, mostly unemployed in mid-August 2026.
We reminisce about the time when Sigrun stood in the Fundação Bienal, on yet another concrete ramp, being loudly applauded for her own much-fêted works.
The parque building collection, a pre-Brasilia Niemeyer testing/playground, each constructed in the final few years of Vargas’ second (democratic) era to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Sao Paulo in 1954, mostly unemployed in mid-August 2026.
We reminisce about the time when Sigrun stood in the Fundação Bienal, on yet another concrete ramp, being loudly applauded for her own much-fêted works.
Oca 
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As we have found elsewhere, when a building tour is booked, you can be led to places otherwise unattainable by bouncy young people, whose enthusiasm suffices for meaning even when they are presenting in Portuguese. We book a few of tours to get past the gates.
On Lina Bo Bardi’s (1914–1992) Casa de Video tour - we are suitably impressed by the 1951 glass box multi-purpose living space from which the name is derived, but dumbfounded by the traditional styles of living and being served-upon that lie behind. A couple of toucan’s add colour through the revived vegetation. 
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Fundação Maria Luisa e Oscar Americano 1953 by Oswaldo Bratke (1907-1997) lies just up the old forest road and reflects an American modernist language, run through with Brazilian landscaping. Now a somewhat dull museum of Portuguese royalty, happily the back rooms remain the reserve of Maria Luisa’s excellent modernist printed fabric that doubtless informed the direction of the original house design. |
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BRASILIA
To Brasilia for a few hot days, the foundations of a new capital city substantially constructed between 1955 and 1961 and yet still appearing somewhat sparse between the architectural highlights. Our destinations in chronological order, rather than the more sensible geographic sequence in which we visited.
To Brasilia for a few hot days, the foundations of a new capital city substantially constructed between 1955 and 1961 and yet still appearing somewhat sparse between the architectural highlights. Our destinations in chronological order, rather than the more sensible geographic sequence in which we visited.
Brasilia Palace Hotel 1958 – refurbished after a fire, and despite a few too many new handrails, still an elegant and simple piece, with a level coffee-fed patio to die for. 
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Palácio da Alvorada 1958 – temporarily shut and guarded, glimpsed in the distance, elegant and remote. |
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Palacio Planato 1960 – guarded and open to the few who arrive in dark suits and black limos, a refined space craft landed in shallow water. |
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Praca dos Tres Poderes 1960 – surfaces being restored, the spacemen stand proud in the dust. 
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Brasilia Congresso Nacional 1960 – another guided tour and a chance to see the politics of Brazil in action, but of course in Portuguese so we are guessing somewhat at the consequences. Untamed and hierarchical come to mind as we watch the proceedings. Outside the chambers the welcome is charming and absolute, and we lunch well amongst the politicians and their neatly attired administrators. |
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Museu de Arte de Brasília - MAB – 1960 by Novacap, the city authority’s infrastructure group that oversaw much of Brasilia’s construction and belatedly dabbled in the concepts, where the architectural forms are adopted but the flair is missing. Good exhibits by Brazilian artists though. Cathedral Metropolitana Nossa Seniors Aparecida 1958-1970 – much enjoyed before being ushered out as the mass is about to start and evidently, we are not the chosen. Unusually bright Catholicism defying the realism of gravity. |
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Itamaraty Palace 1970 – another most enjoyable tour, in Portuguese, our attendance made possible by kind-hearted and helpful guards; the enthusiasm of the guide overcoming our lack of understanding. 
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Memorial JK 1981 – another welcoming offer, the ‘door’ lady allowing the cashless pair to enter despite, and being entertained on our way through the dedications by white suited men and women with an evident love and respect for the old president. And housing a strangely restaged but open library full of books to read about the history and politics that influenced Kubitschek’s time in office. |
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Museu Nacional da Republica 1999 – 2006 – the splendid dome and its hanging mezzanine housing a very well-crafted exhibition on the making of Brasilia, intriguingly combining planning, by Costa, architecture, by Niemeyer, and tilework, by Athos Bulcao (1918-2008). 
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Thought for the Day. There are recognised benefits of this very Brazilian architecture. The cool warping of the Corbusian model, the capturing of the essential breezes that pass on all sides and through removable glass walls. Nurturing the temperatures of shadow and subsoil and the breezes cooled across water. Frameless glazed and unglazed openings bring us face to face with nature both green and fluttering. Internal planning that promotes open interconnected spaces and free flow. The simplicity and delight of white concrete forms in a rich tropical landscape both natural and Burlo Marxed.
In simple architectural observation these things are clearly evident and immensely enjoyable.
On how few occasions does the ‘ground floor’ meet with the surrounding landscape. Mostly it’s removed a level, either up or down. On occasions where they are aligned, separating water is to be bridged. If it sticks into a slope, it’s the staff that occupy the interface. This removal from the landscape creates sculpture, on pedestals, on pilotis, raised platforms above concealed sunken spaces from which to view remotely. The slightly lifted dais becomes a controlled public space, a faux extension of the street or a loose limbed yet carefully crafted garden.
In the formal centre of Brazilia entrances are ramped down and constrained by the ground or the water or tightly ascend through openings in and beneath low slabs. Doorways and thresholds are diminished and concealed, the welcome rarely celebrated. The ground that surrounds is unnaturally moulded or left flat and shorn or flooded to pass under.
Here in Brasilia the typology represents culture, religion, residences of the well-healed, bastions of the political and the administrative, removed from wild nature, from the base social level. These are buildings that delight the architectural senses but remain the territory of the politically wealthy.
In simple architectural observation these things are clearly evident and immensely enjoyable.
On how few occasions does the ‘ground floor’ meet with the surrounding landscape. Mostly it’s removed a level, either up or down. On occasions where they are aligned, separating water is to be bridged. If it sticks into a slope, it’s the staff that occupy the interface. This removal from the landscape creates sculpture, on pedestals, on pilotis, raised platforms above concealed sunken spaces from which to view remotely. The slightly lifted dais becomes a controlled public space, a faux extension of the street or a loose limbed yet carefully crafted garden.
In the formal centre of Brazilia entrances are ramped down and constrained by the ground or the water or tightly ascend through openings in and beneath low slabs. Doorways and thresholds are diminished and concealed, the welcome rarely celebrated. The ground that surrounds is unnaturally moulded or left flat and shorn or flooded to pass under.
Here in Brasilia the typology represents culture, religion, residences of the well-healed, bastions of the political and the administrative, removed from wild nature, from the base social level. These are buildings that delight the architectural senses but remain the territory of the politically wealthy.
When levelling with the ground is allowed, tucked behind the Brasilia Palace Hotel, one of the earliest of the Niemeyer buildings in Brasilia for visitors that didn’t care for the workers hut accommodation, the result is faultless; elegant distinction, precise shadowing, captured breezes off the lake and with a comfort that we sit and enjoy for longer than any other of our destinations. |
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Kubitscheck noted that, if you want to build a new city in five years, you don’t start by getting involved with complex urban and sociological debate, you just ask the architects. It is nevertheless the wrong weather for immersing ourselves in the (too constrained?) urban structure to see how and whether it ticks effectively and we mostly stick to seeing the famous buildings, and then by car because the distances are too great and treeless to avoid melanoma.
Despite the architectural delights, an overall impression of Brasilia is one of spatial and social imbalance, a briefly caught and self-assessing exhibition reminding us that Chandigarh needs seeing to compare.
Despite the architectural delights, an overall impression of Brasilia is one of spatial and social imbalance, a briefly caught and self-assessing exhibition reminding us that Chandigarh needs seeing to compare.
And then, a final relaxed vegetation-drenched coffee stop away from the airplane fuselage finds a Brasilia that ignores all that high-falutin’ architecture. There is hope yet. |
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SAO PAULO
Back in Sao Paulo we become engaged with the next generation of architecture represented by the Paulista School which, after the four years of political crisis and creative drought that followed Kubitschek, saw works mostly built under a military dictatorship that didn’t seem to trouble the authors or their clients. Our players are Bo Bardi again, Paulo Mendes da Rocha (1928-2021), Vilanova Artigas again, and Eduardo Corona (1921-2001), each creating buildings/spaces where form and flow is no less present but more angular, more empathetic, and seemingly coming from a more functionally prescriptive programme.
Back in Sao Paulo we become engaged with the next generation of architecture represented by the Paulista School which, after the four years of political crisis and creative drought that followed Kubitschek, saw works mostly built under a military dictatorship that didn’t seem to trouble the authors or their clients. Our players are Bo Bardi again, Paulo Mendes da Rocha (1928-2021), Vilanova Artigas again, and Eduardo Corona (1921-2001), each creating buildings/spaces where form and flow is no less present but more angular, more empathetic, and seemingly coming from a more functionally prescriptive programme.
Lina Bo Bardi’s MASP 1968 and SESC Pompeia 1986 – having initially played with European devices at Casa de Video, more latterly and after Brasilia, Lina’s architecture and purpose adopt a more familiar Brazilian clever playfulness, now creating buildings with clear social benefit and participation at their core. |
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Casa Butanata 1966 by Paulo Mendes da Rocha - a beautiful home that we are shown around by Paulo’s erudite son Lito and Erika, his gracious wife, but that which we must decline the opportunity to buy at this stage in our lives; the composed, interconnected spaces being designed for a much younger family. 
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Edifício Eurípedes Simões de Paula da FFLCH-USP 1966 by Eduardo Corona - not the finest external architecture but housing an expansive and public open space shaded by a delightfully daft roof and sporting interconnected ramps for focus and engagement. |
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School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Sao Paulo 1968 by Vilanova Artigas - in which we both wish we had studied if only for the clarity, the openness and the inspiration it invokes. A true masterpiece. 
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Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia - MuBE 1995 - and Burle Marx’ influence is waning, the garden planned to invade de Rocha’s architectural form and surfaces is pulled back to the fringes, a residual out-of-place curved edge bridge possibly the only remnant in the well detailed, intriguing, angular processional geometry of the sculpted concrete sculpture landscape. 
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Galeria Leme 2012 - Metro Arquitetos Associados and Paulo Mendes da Rocha. 
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And finally, as always, there arrives a new architecture, where the da Rocha concrete angularity is still present, while the new kids on the architectural block introduce their refined industrial steel and glass components. But these new architects are good too, and a look at their website and those of their contemporaries show both respect for those who came before and potential for their own architecture to be equally well considered and worthy of exploration, on perhaps another sojourn on a future birthday.
August 2026
