For a review of history of the School of Architecture, established in 1934, please see the following article: Pinto de Oliveira, Cléo Alves and Maini de Oliveira Perpétuo.  2005.  O ensino na primeira escola de arquitetura do Brasil, Arquitextos,  066.04, November 2005.  Accessed https://vitruvius.com.br/index.php/revistas/read/arquitextos/06%20066/408 archived https://perma.cc/58TR-APLN.

The Pampulha Modern Ensemble is a World Heritage Cultural Landscape inscribed in 2016.  It was the centre of a visionary garden city project created in 1940 at Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais State. Designed around an artificial lake, this cultural and leisure centre included a casino, a ballroom, the Golf Yacht Club and the São Francisco de Assis church. The buildings were designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, in collaboration with innovative artists including Roberto Burle Marx who designed the landscape “created a circuit of walkable spaces reflecting a dialogue with nature that emphasised these buildings as special pictures in a designed landscapes around the edge of the lake.” (ICOMOS 2016)

The Ensemble comprises bold forms that exploit the plastic potential of concrete, while fusing architecture, landscape design, sculpture and painting into a harmonious whole. It reflects the influence of local traditions, the Brazilian climate and natural surroundings on the principles of modern architecture.

Inhotim Cultural Institute

Inhotim is art in the landscape, with various sites spread across a huge park of 1,942 acres.  Set aside in 2002, it is a natural heritage site, part of a Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (Private Natural Heritage Reserve) that is a Conservation Unit in Brazil created “by the will of the landowner” (WWF n.d.).  “As long as resource protection is guaranteed in RPPNs, it is possible to develop scientific, educational and tourist-recreational activities” (WWF n.d.).  The criteria for creating a RPPN are that “the area must have value for the protection of biodiversity, important landscape aspects or even environmental characteristics that justify recovery actions capable of promoting the conservation of fragile or threatened ecosystems” (WWF n.d.).  It is both the largest collection of modern art in Brazil, and the largest (by size) institution in the country (Heeren 2017).

Inhotim is truly reflects the confluence of culture and nature in conservation and design.  In addition to the art installations and museum structures spread across the landscape, the park functions as a large botanical garden designed, in part, by Roberto Burle Marx.  He began the design during a visit in 1984 (Adams 2017), ultimately providing sketches for about 10 percent of the site area (Adams 2017).  The project was ultimately realized by Luiz Carlos Orsini (Adams 2017).

Adams, William Howard.  2017.  Roberto Burle Marx: the unnatural art of the garden.  New York: The Museum of Modern Art.  Accessed November 27, 2024, https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_337_300298266.pdf; archived https://perma.cc/X5YV-9GJA.

Heeren, Alice. 2017. The Inhotim Cultural Institute: Affective Coding and the History of Museums in Brazil. Rebus 8, Spring 2017: p 63-97. Accessed November 27, 2024, https://www.csustan.edu/sites/default/files/2022-12/the-inhotim-cultural-institute-affective-coding-and-the-history-of-museums-in-brasil.pdf; archived https://perma.cc/KM7Z-JXJC.

World Wildlife Fund. n.d.  RPPN Reserva Particular Do Patrimônio Natural(Private Natural Heritage Reserve).  Accessed November 27, 2024, https://www.wwf.org.br/nossosconteudos/educacaoambiental/conceitos/rppn/; archived https://perma.cc/4V9M-SRS3.