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Parque do Ibirapuera

1953, São Paulo
Landscape architecture: Roberto Burle Marx (not realised)
Architecture: Oscar Niemeyer

The Parque do Ibirapuera is a large-scale park in São Paulo and was the first project of this size that Burle Marx worked on, at the invitation of Oscar Niemeyer. To celebrate the 400-year jubilee of the city of São Paulo, Oscar Niemeyer was commissioned to design a large complex of buildings. These buildings are connected by a curved canopy. Burle Marx designed a series of small, varied gardens for a park zone that was to be portioned out by the architectural structure. They were intended to create a harmonious connection between the buildings and the surrounding parkland, and to enable a diversity of spatial and aesthetic experiences. For the geometric garden, Burle Marx works with an asymmetrical geometric structure, in which swathes of plants create colour accents, complemented by water basins with coloured interiors. In the garden with the floating path, visitors would be given the opportunity to view the garden from above. Burle Marx also designed delicate sculptures for this garden.

While some of Niemeyer’s designs were built, Burle Marx’s gardens were never realised. Looking back, Burle Marx said that his designs for the park were too revolutionary and expensive, but that they were also enormously important for his development as a landscape architect. In the 1970s, Burle Marx worked up a new proposal for the site that was also never realised. It was not until 1993, shortly before his death, that two small projects of his were implemented in the park: the sculpture garden for the Museu de Arte Moderna of São Paulo, and the redesign of parts of the historic Viveiro Manequinho Lopes.