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Residência Odette Monteiro

1945–1948, Corrêas
Today: Fazenda Marambaia
Landscape architecture: Roberto Burle Marx
Architecture: Wladimir Alves de Souza

Burle Marx designed many gardens for the wealthy residents of Rio de Janeiro, who built their summer houses in the cooler mountainous regions surrounding the city. An early example is the garden he designed for Odette and Júlio Monteiro in the middle of the Serra dos Órgãos. Curving paths lead out from the neo-colonial-style building and around an artificial pond. Massed plantings of different species create contrasting swathes of colour that give rise to organic forms. An important aspect is the garden’s harmonious integration with the national park that it borders. Burle Marx brought the Japanese concept of shakkei (borrowed scenery) into play, which is widely favoured in traditional English Garden design. Here, for example, a mountain beyond the premises serves as scenery and is integrated into the garden’s composition. The large rock formation is reflected in smaller boulders that are placed throughout the garden. Through his collaboration with botanist Henrique Lahmeyer de Mello Barreto, Burle Marx increasingly made his selection and combination of plants based on ecological criteria. For this garden he also focused on the locally dominant rock vegetation, which grows on gneiss and granite rock crevices.

In 1953, Burle Marx won the first prize for landscape architecture at the International Architecture Exhibition at the II Bienal de São Paulo for this project, which subsequently received widespread attention. In 1954, for example, Burle Marx accompanied Walter Gropius on a visit to the garden.