Lina Bo Bardi (born December 5, 1914, Rome, Italy–died March 20, 1992, São Paulo, Brazil) was one of the most prominent and consequential Modernist architects, whose work is celebrated for its simplicity and successful merging of the Modernist ideals she was trained in with the vernacular Brazilian aesthetics.

“There is a pleasure in the victory and wonder of being simple.” -Lina Bo Bardi

Bo Bardi graduated from University of Rome with a degree in Architecture and opened her studio shortly after. Unfortunately, on July 19, 1943, Allied bombers launched an air raid on Rome in which her studio was destroyed, forcing her to temporarily abandon her practice. She picked it up a few years later, in Brazil, where she and her husband moved to rebuild their lives.

Over the next 30 plus years, she would participate in an astonishing number and variety of projects. Bo Bardi designed private homes, including her own São Paulo home, the Glass House (1951), an early example of the use of reinforced concrete in domestic architecture. She designed modern furniture in plywood and native Brazilian woods (which she admired for their inherent "strength" and "beauty"). She believed that every designed object ought to take on a form that would display its own "natural logic." Bo Bardi's most famous furniture design is her upholstered Bowl chair on a metal frame (1951). In addition to architecture and furniture, Bo Bardi designed jewelry and created set designs and costumes for experimental film and theater.

Bo Bardi’s impressive architecture portfolio included public buildings, offices, theaters, churches, and "leisure," or cultural centers, such as the highly successful Pompéia Factory (1977). She was responsible for the design of several innovative new art museums, including the Modern Art Museum in São Paulo (1957-68), and organized and curated many exhibitions.

Main Projects

Bo Bardi’s Glass House is a contemporary to both Mies van der Rohe’s and Philip Johnson’s glass houses. It was built with a highly rationalist design. The main structure consists of two slabs of reinforced concrete, where half of the house sits on solid ground and the other half is elevated and supported on slender stilts, allowing for lush vegetation to integrate the structure with its surroundings. The design elevates the entire house, and one enters it from underneath by a flight of stairs into an expansive living area with glass walls.

Museu de Arte São Paulo was designed with an expansive concrete-and-glass 74-meter-wide Brutalist structure held on four columns that surround the whole building and lift it 8 meters above the ground. This two-floor, massive yet simple, colorful structure with unobstructed views of the entire city would become a cultural magnet and an icon of the city.

Learn More

https://www.archdaily.com/575429/spotlight-lina-bo-bardi

External References

https://linabobarditogether.com/2012/06/15/articles/

https://placesjournal.org/article/lina-bo-bardi-and-the-architecture-of-everyday-culture/?cn-reloaded=1

https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/reputations/lina-bo-bardi-1914-1992?utm_source=WordPress&utm_medium=Recommendation&utm_campaign=Recommended_Articles 

https://www.casatigallery.com/designers/lina-bo-bardi/#biography

https://www.archdaily.com/575429/spotlight-lina-bo-bardi

Women in Architecture

Women in architecture like Lina Bo Bardi inspire women like us to enter the male-dominant profession fearlessly and innovate shamelessly. If a woman in the 20th century could start her offices from zero twice, we can build an influential architecture practice in 2022!

Blog post written by Sofia Manassi and edited by Lidia Birukova.