Lina Bo Bardi: An Architect's Brazil
An important chapter of Brazil's architectural history was written by the Italien Architect Lina Bo Bardi. Born in Rom in 1914 she emigrated to Brazil in 1946 where she practised until her death in 1992. The Zürich Museum of Design is to stage the first ever exhibition of her life's work to appear in Switzerland in collaboration with the Instituto Lina Bo and P.M. Bardi in São Paulo.

Lina Bo Bardi's architectural career began in the practice of Gio Ponti in Milan. As his assistant, she not only worked on town planning projects, but was also involved in fashion and industrial design assignments and wrote for the journal "Domus" which was founded by Ponti. During the war, she was the editor of this journal until its publication was halted in 1944 for political reasons. In 1946, Lina Bo Bardi travelled to Brazil with her husband, art critic and art dealer, Pietro Maria Bardi. Fascinated by the elegance of simplicity, she embarked on an intensive phase of work which was to leave a mark on many spheres of cultural life - architecture, fashion, design and theatre. Her outstanding knowledge of architectural construction methods enabled her to develop new and expressive projects. Bo Bardi demanded a social architecture in which financial economy was not permitted to stand in the way of the poetic aspect.

The "Glass House", dating back to 1951, is one of her best known projects: a simple cube which appears to float above extremely slender support piers, blending into the surrounding environment. The São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) was constructed between 1957-68 and it was as a result of this building that Bo Bardi became one of Brazil's most important architects. It is a bold design comprising two huge, red, reinforced concrete frames from which the main body of the building is suspended; a paradoxical mix of heavy and light, which was later described by the American musician, John Cage, as " architecture of freedom". The sport and cultural centre SESC-Pompéia Factory (1977) is probably most representative of her architectural concepts, involving the conversion of a disused factory in São Paulo. Bo Bardi built two concrete towers on adjacent land to house a sports complex, thus creating a landmark in the city chaos which is São Paulo. She was involved with a number of projects in Bahia, in the North of Brazil, which are proof of her immense sensitivity to local Afro-Brazilian culture. At once radical and confrontational, Bo Bardi often expressed her ideas in a provocative manner which did not always go unpunished. Everything she did has a highly personal touch which is hard to categorise. Incensed and enraged by the post-modernists ("architecture's biggest 'sell-out'") and the International Style ("trying to find a common language for all cultures is a contradiction in terms!"), she consequently practised a form of "anthropological architecture", based on a respectful attitude towards the user. Certainly, her ability to combine modern trends with the traditional culture of Brazil has never been in doubt.

Lina Bo Bardi was not only a great architect and artist; she also made a name for herself as a thinker and theorist. As an architect and a character with lashings of charisma, she influenced a whole generation of architects, writers, directors and designers both politically and socially and helped them to achieve an in-depth understanding of their own culture. She showed the country where she chose to have her home that things could be done in different ways. Throughout her life, she fought for freedom and happiness within the community and accordingly involved herself almost exclusively with public buildings and projects.

The exhibition includes the following: draft designs, plans, architectural photographs, models, furniture and a video.