2

Residência Edmundo Cavanellas

1954, Petrópolis
Today: Casa Cavanellas, Instituto Burle Marx
Landscape architecture: Roberto Burle Marx
Architecture: Oscar Niemeyer

Eduardo Cavanellas’ summer house lies in a narrow valley surrounded by mountains. The house, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, is perpendicular to the valley and has an undulating flat roof; its living room, with large glass fronts, offers views onto the valley’s two sides. Burle Marx designed two distinctly different gardens for each side of the house: one is orthogonal, with a checkerboard pattern, while the other features organically curved shapes. Of the two design styles, the orthogonal started to prevail over the course of the 1950s. Both gardens are characterised by a sense of clarity, with a limited selection of plant species. In interviews, Burle Marx says that he produced “salad” gardens in his early work, with too many different plants and colours mixed. A footpath circles the property and leads to the rest of the grounds, where a reflecting pond captures the surrounding mountains. A layered planting scheme creates a transition from the garden to the tall trees of the surrounding forest.

As with other projects, Burle Marx used two varieties of grass; in this case for the checkerboard-patterned lawn. The darker grass is more dominant and requires constant management to prevent it from spreading. The garden has been looked after for many years now by the same gardener. The property was recently acquired by the Instituto Burle Marx, and will be open to the public from 2028.