Lina Bo Bardi was a key figure in Brazilian architecture, originally from Italy. After studying in Rome and working in Milan, she moved to Brazil with her husband, Pietro Maria Bardi. In São Paulo, she designed the iconic Glass House (1951) and the Museum of Art São Paulo (MASP) (1957). Later, she directed the Museu de Arte da Moderna da Bahia in Salvador and designed notable projects like the Solar do Unhão restoration, Sesc Pompéia, and Teatro Oficina. Bo Bardi’s work extended beyond architecture to include set design, art, and furniture. She passed away in 1992, leaving unfinished projects.
Lina Bo Bardi (December 4, 1914 – March 20, 1992) was a key figure in 20th-century Brazilian architecture, known for her expressive and influential designs. Born Lina Achillina Bo in Italy, she studied architecture at the University of Rome and later moved to Milan, where she collaborated with Gio Ponti and became the editor of Quaderni di Domus magazine.
After World War II destroyed her office, Bo Bardi co-founded the publication A Cultura della Vita with Bruno Zevi. As a member of the Italian Communist Party, she met critic and art historian Pietro Maria Bardi, with whom she eventually moved to Brazil.
In Rio de Janeiro, Bo Bardi was inspired by the lush environment and modernist architecture, a transformation that deepened when she and Pietro moved to São Paulo. There, she studied Brazilian culture from an anthropological viewpoint, focusing on the intersection of art and popular tradition.
In 1950, Bo Bardi founded the magazine Habitat and, in 1951, designed her iconic Glass House in Morumbi, São Paulo—an exemplar of rationalist art in Brazil. Later, in 1957, she began the construction of the new home for the Museum of Art São Paulo (MASP), suspending the building above a 70-meter-long plaza.
Bo Bardi moved to Salvador to direct the Museu de Arte da Moderna da Bahia, where she continued to create significant works, including the restoration of the Solar do Unhão, the Chame-Chame House (1964), the Sesc Pompéia (1977), and the Teatro Oficina (1984).
Her influence extended beyond architecture to include set design, art, furniture, and graphic design. Lina Bo Bardi passed away in 1992, leaving several projects unfinished.
Architecture is created, ‘invented anew,’ by each man who attempts her, who roams her space, climbs a stair, rests on a balustrade, lifts his head to look, open, close a door, who sits down or gets up and makes intimate contact with—and at the same time create ‘forms’ in—the space […] This intimate, fiery, contact, that which was perceived by man at the beginning, is today forgotten. Routine and communal places made man forget the natural beauty of ‘moving in space,’ of his conscious movement, of those little gestures…
– Lina Bo Bardi
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