On Tuesday 1 October, we will be hosting a special evening dedicated to the work of Roberto Burle Marx with founder of the Burle Marx Institute, Isabela Ono and Observer architecture critic Rowan Moore. Isabela will share insights from Burle Marx’s collection at the Institute and the work they do to preserve his legacy, in landscape design and environmental activism.
Ahead of the talk, today we’ve picked one particular aspect of Burle Marx’s work to learn more about his practice. Rather than a public project, his own home and garden near Rio de Janeiro:
Renowned landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx’s legacy stretches from the Copacabana Beach promenade on Atlantic Avenue in Rio de Janeiro to numerous public building gardens in Brasília, to his own botanical garden. With more than 50 plants named after him, Burle Marx was an early voice in calls for the conservation of Brazil’s rainforests.
The Burle Marx Institute, soon to re-locate 120km north of Rio de Janeiro at Casa Cavanelas —one of his iconic collaborations with architect Oscar Niemeyer—is dedicated to preserving Burle Marx’s work. The Institute, established in 2019 as a non-profit organization, strives to make his extensive archive collection publicly accessible.
To understand more about Burle Marx’s life, career and passions, we can look to his own home, a botanical sanctuary outside Rio de Janeiro that he lovingly nurtured over the later decades of his life.
In 1949, he acquired the site “Sítio Santo Antônio da Bica” in Guaratiba, near Rio de Janeiro. He gradually developed the site and in the 70s, he decided to live there. He loved studying and observing plants, so he established his own nursery and tropical plant collection. He donated the Sítio to the Brazilian Government in 1985. Now called Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, it has over 3,500 species of plants from different parts of Brazil and abroad. In 2020, the Sitio became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Many of these plants were gathered during his botanical expeditions, and it was on these excursions that Burle Marx witnessed the environmental degradation and deforestation of Brazil at first hand. He became a vociferous advocate for the protection of Brazil’s natural resources.
The site is dotted with gardens and greenhouses, pools and cascades, and a 17th century chapel. In this private paradise, Burle Marx’s creativity found its freest expression. He gardened, painted, and cooked, hosting lavish meals for friends, served on a long table decorated with lush floral and fruit arrangements and covered with tablecloths painted for the occasion.
A conservationist in continual dialogue with the past, to build the various structures around the Sítio, he brought architectural fragments from demolished old buildings in downtown Rio. These were repurposed to create sculptural walls, and a studio where he worked.
The Sítio is also home to Burle Marx’s collections of Brazilian popular art, sacred art, glass and pre-Columbian artifacts, as well as many of his own works.
The Sítios and the Burle Marx Institute are partners in the mission to preserve and disseminate Burle Marx’s legacy. The Institute was founded by landscape architect Isabela Ono, whose father Haruyoshi Ono was Burle Marx’s creative partner for almost 30 years. Isabela inherited her father’s passion for landscapes, preserving Burle Marx’s contribution to Brazilian biomes, and inspiring new visions for the future of healthier, more inclusive and greener cities.
The Institute’s mission is to provide public access to its collection: more than 150,000 items, including sketches, projects, photographs, documents, letters and newspaper clippings, built over seven decades of practice and which tells the story and collective legacy of one of the most important landscape architects of the 20th century.
On Tuesday 1 October at 7pm, we will be joined by Isabela Ono, Executive Director at the Burle Marx Institute, and Rowan Moore, Architecture Critic for The Observer, for a special evening dedicated to the work of Roberto Burle Marx.
Isabela will share insights from this collection and discuss some of the major projects Burle Marx developed over seven decades. She will explain why his work continues to be so influential and how his projects are regarded as works of art in their own right.
Tickets available to attend in person or watch online (live or on demand): book tickets