Brazilian artist Roberto Burle Marx, painting in the garden of his Brazilian home. For Le Corbusier, the rainforests of South America reminded him of “the horrible mold” that would collect in and around his mother’s homemade jars of jam. The open expanse of the Amazon struck the famed modernist with, if not fear exactly, then at least a great deal of frustration. With tropics and wildlife, the impulse to control was futile. For the Brazilian designer Roberto Burle Marx, however, who was studying European modernism in Berlin while Le Corbusier was flying over the Amazon, the tropics were not an intractable “mold” but instead represented the possibility of rethinking design’s relationship to nature altogether. What if, instead of the kind of concrete-poured control that Le Corbusier insisted upon, landscape design might be integrated within its surroundings? Burle Marx’s best-known work—an undulating design of white, black and brown paving stones along the This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Three Buy Now Related Stories Design Interiors Issue 43 Vincent Van Duysen At home with the cult architect. Arts & Culture Design Issue 36 Alexis Sablone Not many architects skate for their country, and not many skateboarders design the parks they skate in. Design Issue 32 Kengo Kuma Japan’s modest blockbuster architect. Design Issue 31 Salem Charabi Meet the architect whose work flows from the Danish concept of håndnær. Design Issue 31 Archive: Charlotte Perriand On the architect who understood that modernism was much more than an aesthetic movement. Design Interiors Issue 30 Maison de Verre A cubist tableau. A light show. A maverick of modernism. Hugo Macdonald explores a Parisian masterpiece.
Arts & Culture Design Issue 36 Alexis Sablone Not many architects skate for their country, and not many skateboarders design the parks they skate in.
Design Issue 31 Salem Charabi Meet the architect whose work flows from the Danish concept of håndnær.
Design Issue 31 Archive: Charlotte Perriand On the architect who understood that modernism was much more than an aesthetic movement.
Design Interiors Issue 30 Maison de Verre A cubist tableau. A light show. A maverick of modernism. Hugo Macdonald explores a Parisian masterpiece.