+ 13

+ 23

+ 35

+ 13

+ 22

+ 15

+ 8

+ 18

+ 28

+ 19

+ 11

+ 18

+ 20

+ 16

+ 16

+ 11

+ 38

+ 15

+ 29

+ 25

+ 8

Videos

This article was originally published on July 20, 2018. To read about other iconic architecture projects, visit our AD Classics section.

Ibirapuera Park is a landmark in the city of São Paulo and a milestone of Brazilian modern architecture. Housing a cluster of five cultural buildings connected by a light, sinuous canopy, the project—designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer in harmony with the landscaping—reads like poetry floating over São Paulo's urban fabric.

Commissioned in 1951 by Governor Lucas Nogueira Garcez—who established a planning commission composed of public and private sector representatives for the celebrations of the IV Centennial of the City of São Paulo—the park was envisioned as a landmark for the capital, serving as a vital hub for culture and leisure. This idea, which had previously been championed by Ciccillo Matarazzo, paved the way for a proposal that combined a series of cultural and artistic buildings.

+ 29

+ 9

Text description provided by the architects. Claudio Bernardes designed and built this house for his family. The project was shaped by the natural conditions of its island setting and Bernardes's passion for the location. The house was assembled from numbered timber components that were floated to Palmeiras Island in Angra dos Reis, towed by a trawler.

Bernardes envisioned the house as a vast open space, utilizing natural ventilation and daylight, where only the bedrooms could be closed off to encourage an understated, fluid lifestyle. Built upon a stone foundation, the home rises in two timber stories. A three-meter eave allows the expansive thatched roof to extend well beyond the building envelope, heightening the interior volume, expanding the indoor living areas, and providing protection from wind and rain.

A white box traverses the Olinda sky.

Atop the hill, on the site chosen for the city's founding—offering views of the entire urban landscape and the sea—a seed of modern architecture in Brazil was planted in a vacant space between the Cathedral (Sé) and the Senate House (Casa de Câmara).

+ 2