Roberto Burle Marx is internationally known as one of the most important landscape architects of the 20th century. An artist of multiple facets, besides being a landscape designer he was also a remarkable painter, sculptor, singer, and jewelry designer, with a sensibility that is shown throughout his work. Born in São Paulo in August 4th, 1909, Roberto Burle Marx moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1913.
During the years of 1928 and 1929 he studied painting in Berlin – Germany, where he was often seen at the Dahlem Botanic Garden’s greenhouses. In this garden he noticed for the first time the beauty of the tropical plants and the Brazilian flora.
His first landscape project was a private garden for a house designed by the Architects Lucio Costa and Gregory Warchavchik in 1932. Since then, his landscape works improved as well as his painting and drawing.
In 1949, he bought a 365,000m2 estate in Barra de Guaratiba, in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where he started to organize his big collection of plants.
In 1985, he donated this estate to a federal government cultural organization, Pró-Memória National Foundation, which is nowadays called National Institute for Cultural Heritage – IPHAN.
Roberto Burle Marx died in Rio de Janeiro in 1994, at the age of 84.
In 1955, he founded a landscape company, called Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. (Burle Marx & Company), where he started to develop landscape design, along with the implementation and maintenance of his residential and public gardens. In 1968, Haruyoshi Ono, a landscape architect, became his partner. Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. landscape studio, created by Roberto Burle Marx in 1955. The office develops landscape projects, and implements, maintains, and restores gardens. It is also requested as a consulting board, giving supervision and orientation in landscape and environmental issues. In addition, it owns a small nursery that produces and sells plants.
Hottentots Holland: Flora Capensis 4, 2008
Archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper, 79 x 65cm
Photography and compositing: Tony Meintjes
Flower arranging: Christopher Peter
Hottentots Holland: Flora Capensis 2, 2008
Archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper, 79 x 65cm
Photography and compositing: Tony Meintjes
Flower arranging: Christopher Peter
In almost every book about R. Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller, and several books by Bucky Fuller, you can find descriptions and illustrations of Fuller’s world maps. His most well known world map is based on the icosahedron. … more
The mid-century modern garden can be found in the Jacques Tati film, Mon Oncle:
M. Hulot is the dreamy, impractical, and adored uncle of young Gérard (nine years old), who lives with his materialistic parents in an ultra-modern geometric house and garden (Villa Arpel) in a new suburb of Paris.
Part of the joke of the movie is that the housewife spends all her time meticulously manicuring her modern garden
Prisons are perhaps the most resource-intensive institutional infrastructures. This is largely a function of the unique nature of the building typology, which requires continuous operation, high levels of lighting (for security) and water consumption (for the inmates). Moreover, prison cells that contain toilet fixtures are required to have exhaust venting, increasing heating and cooling loads and costs. With the number of prisons on the rise in the US, new green initiatives are being explored to offset these resource hogs.
Take, for instance, Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC), located close to Olympia in Washington State. A couple of years ago, Cedar Creek set up a “Green Work” program, wherein inmates grow produce, compost and recycle waste, and harvest honey. They have also established a research venture with Evergreen State College, entitled the Sustainable Prisons Project. Cedar Creek (and prisons in general) provide an ideal environment to measure energy and food inputs and outputs due to the stability of the population. Further, the inmates are educated in green practices and gain job skills, equipping them to be part of the next generation of ‘green-collared’ workers.
Cedar Creek’s organic garden, recycling program, composting, beehive facility and water catchment tanks have impressive measurable figures; 15000 pounds of organic food was produced last year alone, while 2000 pounds of food was composted. Further, over 250 000 gallons of water was saved. The economic savings from landfill, water and food costs totaled $34,333 USD, or approximately $85.83 per inmate per annum. This has saved Washington State taxpayers $1.5 million dollars per year and allowed, in theory, money to be transferred to other social programs. Further, it has inspired the retrofitting of 34 facilities in Washington State to gain LEED certification.
VULGARE IS WRITTEN BY THOMAS BARBEY IN COLLABORATION WITH OLIVIER CAZIN. CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE A LANDSCAPE PROJECT, A LINK SUGGESTION OR JUST TO SAY HELLO : TOMBARBEY@GMAIL.COM
