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Residência Alfred de Schulthess

1956, Havanna
Today: Casa de Schulthess
Landscape architecture: Roberto Burle Marx
Architecture: Richard Neutra

The Austrian-born US American architect Richard Neutra invited Burle Marx to design the gardens at Alfred de Schulthess’s home in the Cuban capital in 1955. In Burle Marx, Neutra saw a landscape architect of the first order, and emphasised his unparalleled originality to Schulthess.

As with the garden he designed for Edmundo Cavanellas, here Burle Marx contrasts organic forms with an orthogonal grid. A lighter and a darker grass variety create two large lawns between the rectangular flowerbeds and the footpath that runs along the edge of the property and leads around the garden. Schulthess had specific requirements for what was to be planted in the garden. As he only spent half of the year, from October to May, in Havana, he wanted plants that would bloom in this window. Furthermore, he wanted the garden to block his view of the neighbours and be easy to maintain. Ultimately, Schulthess found the process of procuring and maintaining the plants chosen by Burle Marx to be too much effort and made changes without consulting Burle Marx. In a letter, Burle Marx expresses his displeasure: “A plant is not just interesting when it blooms, it is also interesting because of its foliage, its sculptural qualities, its volumes and contrasts. A garden is a sequence of harmonies in colour, form and volume, which should not be disrupted. A single plant is not the same as the same plant in a group or in contrast to other elements in the garden.”

Known as Casa de Schulthess today, the property has been home to the Swiss embassy since 1968. After a period of the garden being planted with Swiss species at the request of the new occupants, in recent years efforts have been made to return to Burle Marx’s original vision.