Spretnak The Blog: Sitio Burle Marx: the House and Gardens of the Landscape Architect of Brasilia

The backyard of Burle-Marx

Back in the Rio groove.

Those of you who know me well, or well enough, may be surprised to hear this, but sometimes when I am a tourist, I like to go to places that my fellow tourists fail to go., whether out of lack of knowledge or lack of interest. In Rio de Janeiro, when I hired a tour guide to show me the sights, one place I wanted to see was Sítio Roberto Burle Marx. These are the gardens of the famed landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. The guide dissuaded me from going on his tour, not because of the obscurity (he says he usually gets about one request a year to be taken there), but because of the distance. It may be 42.5 km (about 27 or 28 miles), but it takes about two hours to get there because of Rio traffic. He said he would find me a driver to take me there on the second Rio segment of this trip.

He did. And two hours after departing my hotel, we arrived at the Sítio Roberto Burle Marx exactly on time for the scheduled 9:30 a.m. English language guided tour.

This is not on the typical Rio tourist trail. There were four of us for the English tour (and that includes my driver-guide who came along) and, maybe, three others for the Portuguese language tour. This is no Cristo Redentor and Corcovado by any means.

The site is fairly large and you can explore only as part of an organized tour.

The site is not so much "gardens" as it is a large plot of land with lots of very interesting species of plants.

I was expecting a Brazilian answer to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C., Canada.

This is not that. Although, interestingly, one of the other people on the English language tour (obviously not me) grew up on Vancouver Island, Canada, apparently not far from Butchart Gardens. I was under the impression she may have studied landscape architecture, hence her interest in Mr. Burle Marx and this particular tour.

I'm not even going to pretend to know the names of all the various plants and trees and shrubs and succulents we saw. Even the trees around the parking lot were interesting.

We first explored what was kind of, sort of, but not quite, Burle Marx's greenhouse.

Who is Roberto Burle Marx? He was one of the world's pre-eminent landscape architects. Along with urban planner Lucio Costa, architect Oscar Niemeyer, and structural engineer Joaquim Cardozo, Burle Marx was one of the key figures responsible for giving Brasilia its distinct, futuristic look.

Burle Marx was most definitely Brazilian. And he searched Brazil for plants that he could domesticate and use in his landscaping designs. He personally found several new species of plants. A couple of dozen plants bear his name due to these efforts.

Brazil was a very good backyard for him to use for exploration, as this is one of the most bio-diverse countries on the planet, with the Amazonian rain forest in the north, the swamps of the Pantanal in the South, the deserts of the Sertão in the northeast, and a whole of nature everywhere else.

Feel the nature! The flower of this plant really did feel artificial. Only it was real. Isn't nature weird? By the way, my driver and guide João can seen below the plant leaf on the far left of the picture. Oi João!

The above plant, I believe, has become a common ornamental. Or perhaps not. I really should have taken notes. In addition to taking pictures.

The flower of the above plant looks like meat hanging to dry. It's not! And it feels furry. Not a little hairy. Thick furry. Nature is weirder than we can imagine.

There was a reason I took a picture of this plant and it's flower. Anyone remember?

And the plant above might be in the ginger family. We saw a lot of plants in the ginger family in the Burle Marx greenhouse. This likely was one of them, but I'm not guaranteeing it.

Again, it was not quite a greenhouse. It had concrete walls, not glass. I probably should have used the word "enclosure," as that is a more accurate description than "green house," but I already made my choice and I have to forever deal with the consequences.

Next on the tour: we're going to take a ride up to the Burle Marx workshop or, if you prefer the fancy-fancy term, his atelier.

All the big-name artists in the big-name cities of Europe have "ateliers," the most notable being the Atelier Mestrovic in Zagreb, Croatia. OK, it's not the notable. It just was my favorite.

This is Burle Marx's studio / workshop / atelier:

I thought the place had a Spanish feel to it.

He designed the "atelier" with repurposed stones from somewhere for which they were originally purposes.

It is decorated with his art.

Here I am with Mr. Burle Marx himself.

He's probably telling me we're not good enough friends for me to be posing for that photo in such a chummy manner.

Burle Marx was an artist. Not just a landscape architect.

And while his art was quite interesting, there is a reason he is known primarily as a landscape architect.

The plants are the stars of this artistic show.

The art? Less so.

But any art would look good with this natural backdrop.

The studio is near the highest point in the complex. There are no trails to points higher, so we begin the downward trek.

This tree has produces hard-shelled pods that are hard (and sound like) coconuts.

But they're not!

Water lilies!

It's late spring in Brazil in early December, so everything is bloom.

If I were allergic to South American plants, this would be a problem. But I don't seem to be, so it's not.

And then we arrived at Burle Marx's house.

Maybe it was the falling water, but the place reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania.

Only this is not Frank Lloyd Wright. And we're in the Zona Oeste of Rio de Janeiro.

But there is plenty of falling water.

Even if it is not "Fallingwater" per se.

But does Frank Lloyd Wright have any houses with a chandelier that looks like this?

Or this?

This is a chandelier befitting the house of the world's foremost landscape architect. Sadly, they did not sell any replicas in the gift shop.

This is the backyard.

Symbiosis:

Great views.

Interestingly, there is a chapel, the Chapel of St. Anthony, Capela Santo Antônio, right next to the house.

Now, why would a Jewish agnostic such as Burle Marx have a Catholic chapel next to his house?

Answer: it already was there. This was a sugarcane plantation at one point in time and this was a chapel for the slaves who worked the sugarcane fields. Also, Burle Marx may not have been religious, but he had a fine appreciation for his religious art. As will be evident when we enter his home,

But first, another plant, in bloom, right outside the house:

These heads along the back wall of the house have the effect of gargoyles, do they now?

This is Burle Marx's bedroom. It was stripped bare by "fans" after his death in the 1990s and redecorated with art of the same there. There is a portrait of a young Burle Marx in the top right corner of the back wall.

Peruvian pottery:

Apparently you put water into these vessels, pour it out, and it makes the sound the animal makes in nature.

So they say.

And here is a handsome couple:

We will end the tour with this art object from inside the Burle Marx house:

A chicken with a single human foot. Again, no replicas for sale in the gift shop. Opportunity lost.

For this being the home and gardens of one of the four men most responsible for making Brasilia what it is, there is very little here with a classic retrofuturistic "Brasilia" look or feel. But it is beautiful greenspace.

Not far from Sítio Roberto Burle Marx are some stunning beach and ocean views. This viewpoint is Grumari. The land in the picture is military land, so it's undevelopable.

From Grumari, there is a nice stretch of lightly visited beaches before you reach the Miami-like development of Barra de Tijuca. This beach is known as Praia do Abricó: