Roberto Burle Marx

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Roberto Burle Marx (August 4th, 1909, São Paulo - June 4th, 1994, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian landscape designer (besides being a painter, ecologist and naturalist) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil. Marx was respected by other 20 th century architects. He was known as a modern nature artist and a public urban space designer.

Marx's first landscaping inspirations came while studying painting in Germany, where he often visited the Dahlem Botanical Gardens and first learned about Brazil's native flora. Upon returning to Brazil in 1930, he began collecting plants in and around his home. In 1932, Burle Marx designed his first landscape for a private residence by the architects Lucio Costa and Gregory Warchavchik.

In 1949 he acquired an estate the 365,000m2 estate Barra de Guaratiba (just outside of Rio de Janeiro) to house his growing collection of plants. This property was donated to the Brazilian government in 1985 and became a national monument. Now called Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, under the direction of IPHAN-Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional / Ministério da Cultura, it houses over 3,500 species of plants and can be reached at (21) 2410-1412. The house was rebuilt in an valley opening on the site of a garden house belonging to the original plantation estate.

Roberto Burle Marx founded a landscape studio in 1955 and in the same year he founded a landscape company, called Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda.

Much of his work has a sense of timelessnes and perfection. His creations were each unique expressions of thought. His aesthetics were often nature based, for example, never mixing flower colours, utilisation of big groups of the same specimen, using native plants and making a rocky field into relaxing garden. He was very interested in each plant's character and what effect that has on the whole garden.

He spent a lot of time in the Brazilian forests where he was able to study and explore. This enabled him to add significantly to the botantical sciences, by discover new rocks plants for example. At least 30 plants bear his name.

[edit] Work

Landscape design of some gardens in the public buildings of Brasília

Ministry of Army - water garden and excellent use of concrete forms.
Foreign Affairs Building
Ministry of Education - roof garden completed in 1937. Marx gained international recognition and admiration for this abstract design.

Copacabana promenade - Pavement landscape, large scale (4 km long) mosaic completed in the early 1930's on famous Rio de Janeiro beach. (Influenced by Portuguese pavement (Portuguese, Calçada Portuguesa))
Flamingo Park - large public park in Rio de Janiero built on landfill
Venetian Palace - entrance, and extreme use of scale.
Parque del Este, Caracas, Venezuela
Cascade Garden, Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania
Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Florida (Completed posthumously)

[edit] References

William Howard Adams (1991). Roberto Burle Marx: The Unnatural Art of the Garden. Museum of Modern Art, New York. ISBN 0-8109-6096-6.
S. Eliovson, R. Burle Marx (1991). The Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx. Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-160-2.
M. Schwartz, M. I. Montero, R. Burle Marx (2001). Roberto Burle Marx. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23290-9.
Roberto Burle Marx (1982). A Garden is Like a Poem. World Microfilms. ISBN 1-85035-075-2.