ARCHITECTURE: Lina Bo Bardi

Lina Bo Bardi (5/12/1914-20/3/1992) was an Italian-born Brazilian architect, furniture designer, set designer, and journalist whose work combines a Modernist sensitivity with a profound commitment to the preservation of the vernacular and a design process guided by social responsibility. Today, Bo Bardi is considered one of the most prominent and consequential Modernist architects, and her prolific oeuvre is appreciated for its simplicity, adherence to Modernism, and deep contemplation.

By Efi Michalarou

Born Lina Achillina Bo in Rome, 1914, she was drawn to the fields of art and architecture at a young age. Though her parents were at first not necessarily receptive of her chosen path, Bo Bardi nevertheless pursued her vision by enrolling at the College of Architecture in Rome. Following her graduation in 1939, she moved to Milan and, with fellow architect Carlo Pagani, founded Studio Bo e Pagani, also, launched her career in design journalism. She also worked with architect and designer Gio Ponti and collaborated with him on the magazine “Lo Stile” while also contributing to several other Italian design publications. In 1944 she became deputy director of “Domus” and held that position until 1945. In 1945 the magazine commissioned Bo Bardi, Pagani, and photographer Federico Patellani to travel through Italy documenting the devastation of World War II. Later that year she collaborated with Pagani and art critic Bruno Zevi on the short-lived magazine “A – Attualità, Architettura, Abitazione, Arte”, which published their findings and discussed ideas for reconstruction in postwar Italy. In 1946 she married Pietro Maria Bardi, an art gallery director, dealer, and critic. The couple moved to Brazil soon after, where her husband had been invited by journalist and media magnate Assis Chateaubriand to help establish and direct Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), the first museum in Brazil to collect and exhibit modern art. For the first iteration of the institution, which opened in 1947 in part of the building that housed Chateaubriand’s business, Bo Bardi designed the interior and the museum fittings. She developed an innovative system for suspending paintings away from the wall. She also designed folding stackable chairs made from Brazilian jacaranda wood and leather, which were used during lectures and events.

In 1950 Bo Bardi founded the magazine “Habitat” with her husband and served as its editor until 1953. During that time it was the most influential architectural magazine in Brazil. She became a citizen of Brazil (1951), established that country’s first industrial design course at the Institute of Contemporary Art (a part of the expanded MASP), and designed for herself and her husband the Le Corbusier-like Casa de Vidro , in the Morumbi neighbourhood of São Paulo. The Glass House was built into a hill and, over time, became entirely integrated into the landscape. The front, main room of the house extended out over the slope of the hill, elevated and supported on slender stilts. In 1951 she also designed her most famous piece of furniture, “Bardi’s Bowl”, a chair in the form of an adjustable hemispherical bowl resting in a steel cradle. By the mid-1950s it was clear that MASP had outgrown its original building, with not only galleries but also dedicated spaces for teaching art. In 1958 she started work on a new building (completed 1968). Centrally located on São Paulo’s Paulista Avenue, Bo Bardi’s iconic glass-and-concrete building was elevated 8 metres above the ground on substantial red pillars. The space at ground level served as an all-purpose gathering place for concerts, protests, socializing, and the like. In 1959 she was invited to establish and run Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia. She chose to house the museum in the Solar do Unhão, a former salt mill and part of a network of historic seaside buildings that she restored in 1963. Bo Bardi added a museum of popular art and an art school to the Museum of Modern Art and housed them all in the Unhão. However, political upheaval caused her to leave Bahia in 1964. Her subsequent return to São Paulo marked the beginning of Brazil’s protracted period of oppression under a military dictatorship that lasted until 1985. During that period Bo Bardi curated exhibitions and worked in theatre, designing sets and costumes for several productions. Bo Bardi’s experience in Bahia had altered her political and aesthetic philosophies. The region’s examples of vernacular and historic architecture had given rise to a design process increasingly guided by social and ethical responsibilities and inspired by allegiance to her adopted country and its native aesthetic traditions. Bo Bardi became committed to creating uniquely Brazilian architecture, designed more simply and made from local materials, what she called “Arquitetura Povera”. Much of her work since her initial experience in Salvador involved repurposing existing structures as well as restoring and preserving historic buildings. Throughout the 1980s Bo Bardi led preservation and restoration projects in the historic centre of Salvador and Misericórdia Hill, an extremely steep historic street (both in 1987). Her next major architecture project was the SESC Pompéia (built in stages, 1977-86), a leisure and cultural centre in São Paulo sponsored by the nonprofit Serviço Social do Comércio. Bo Bardi converted an old steel drum factory into a facility for sports, theatre, and other leisure activities. In the mid-1980s, working with architects André Vainer and Marcelo Carvalho Ferraz, she designed an addition to the Glass House to serve as the Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi, a place to house the Bardis’ archive and dedicated to the study and exhibition of Brazilian art and architecture. Up to the 90’s, Bo Bardi keeps intensely active in all areas of culture, having participated in various projects in theater, architecture, cinema and arts in Brazil and foreign countries. Besides her work as an architect, her involvement as a furniture and jewels designer, artist, scenery and wardrobe producer, organizer and curator of many exhibits deserves attention and respect. Bo Bardi passed away in the Glass House on March 20th, 1992, making her declared dream of working up to the end come true: she leaves the expressive projects for the new headquarters of São Paulo’s city hall and for the Cultural Center Vera Cruz.