Lina Bo Bardi

The first major retrospective of the Brazilian modernist architect's life and work

One of the most important architects of the twentieth century, Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992) was remarkably prolific and intriguingly idiosyncratic. A participant in the efforts to reshape Italian culture in her youth, Bo Bardi immigrated to Brazil in 1946, where her practice evolved within the social and cultural realities of her adopted country. While she continued to work with industrial materials, she added simple building techniques and naturalistic forms to her designs, striving to create large, multiuse spaces that promoted public life.

Lina Bo Bardi is the first comprehensive study of the architect’s life and work. Author Zeuler Lima, the leading authority on Bo Bardi, presents her activities on two continents, examining how ethical and social considerations influenced her intellectual engagement with modern architecture and providing an indispensable guide to her writings and her experimental, iconic designs.

Zeuler R. M. de A. Lima is an architect, curator, artist, and associate professor at the School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Barry Bergdoll is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.