Pietro Maria Bardi - The Vicarious Architect: The Importation of Italian Futurism to Brazil

Abstract

Italian-Brazilian Lina Bo Bardi's modern architecture has received considerable attention. Her urban projects in Brazil, however, are rarely discussed as having been influenced by her husband's thoughts. Consequently, they merit renewed critical attention through this lens. Pietro Maria Bardi's urban experiences and architectural collaborations in pre-war Italy and Brazil informed his reflections upon Italian Futurist manifestoes and drawings. His urban novellas, criticism of Italy's State Architecture and unrealized collaborations, specifically with Pier Lugi Nervi on E'42 in Rome for Rationalist planner Marcello Piacentini, express ways for considering the importation of the underlying Futurist design traits in Brazil. This paper illuminates the lesser-known Italian Futurist links with Lina Bo Bardi's projects and tracks their origins to Pietro Maria Bardi. This argument draws upon Olivia de Oliveira's interview with Lina Bardi, her last. Pietro Maria Bardi was a vicarious architect and urban Futurist. He subconsciously conceptualized designs with Lina Bo Bardi within an unrestricted Futurist framework, imported from Italy and transformed in Brazil.