Episode 37: Lina Bo Bardi 1914-1951
The time was December 4, 1914. The place, Rome, Italy. Achillina “Lina” Bo was born on December 4, 1914, in Rome, Italy. Her father, Enrico, was an engineer and a painter. Lina said she owed her analytical thinking and drawings to him. In 1933 at 19 she graduated from the Liceo Artistico Mamiani di Roma, an art high school and after that she majored in architecture. She went to the College of Architecture at Universitá La Sapienza di Roma, where she worked for the dean, Marcello Piacientini making drawings for projects and competitions. After graduating architecture school she moved to Milan in 1939. Lina landed a job with the famous architect Gio Ponti who taught her a lot but didn't pay her well, actually he had the audacity to suggest Lina should pay to work with him because of all he was teaching her. Lina had to hustle and she got a job doing all the drawings in the magazine Domus which belonged to Gio so at least he paid her there. And she also got a job as journalist for Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s most read newspapers at the time and today. Then at 28 she and her buddy Carlo Pagani started the firm Studio Pagani Bo. But WWII made it hard for Studio Pagani Bo to get work so Lina kept hustlin. She started a weekly magazine with Bruno Zevi, another famous architect, called A - Attualità, Architettura, Abitazione, Arte. She was the Deputy Director of Domus from 1944-1945. She used these creative outlets to expand her thoughts and theories about architecture. A year later she married Pietro Bardi and moved to Brazil. There she began the magazine Habitat a “review of architecture and art in Brazil”. Her first completed project in Brazil was actually her own home. La Casa de Cristal, her Glass House in Sao Paulo in 1951. For more information of her life in Brazil proceed to Episode 38 shownotes.
Caryatid: Maria Nicanor
Maria Nicanor is the Executive Director of the Rice Design Alliance or RDA, the public and outreach programs of Rice Architecture. They do a lot, architecture tours, design competitions and publications such as Cite. Maria has a BA in Art and Architectural History and Theory from the Autonomous University of Madrid and Sorbonne University Paris, and a MA in Museum and Curatorial Studies from New York University. she was the Inaugural Director of the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid, and the associate Curator of Architecture and Urbanism at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. While she was there she lead the curatorial team of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, an international traveling laboratory for urban experiments and public programs. AND she was part of the team leading the international architecture competition for the Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki, Finland. She still consults organizations and city governments on the development and good practice of architecture competitions. Maria contributes to contemporary-art and architecture publications and lectures all over the world about the future of museums and the role of architecture in museum practice.
References
“ARQ Y FILOSOFIA #15 - LINA BO BARDI.” YouTube, uploaded by Viviano Villarreal-Bueron, 12 Feb. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxD5zyXRDTg&t=4746s.
Braschi, Cecilia. “Lina Bo Bardi and the Magazine Habitat.” AWARE Women Artists / Femmes Artistes, 25 Oct. 2016, awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/lina-bo-bardi-and-the-magazine-habitat.
Camacho, Sol. “Retrospective: Lina Bo Bardi.” Architectural Review, 18 Feb. 2021, www.architectural-review.com/essays/retrospective/retrospective-lina-bo-bardi.
Nicanor, Maria. “Letter from the Executive Director.” Cite 102, no. 102, 2021, p. 20.
Oliveira, Olivia de. “Interview with Lina Bo Bardi.” Nexus 2G Lina Bo Bardi Built Work, no. 23.24, 2002, pp. 230–55.
Wikipedia contributors. “Lina Bo Bardi.” Wikipedia, 8 Sept. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Bo_Bardi.
Images
González, Julieta . Artishock, 29 June 2020. https://artishockrevista.com/2020/06/29/lina-bo-bardi-habitat/
