Lina Bo Bardi

Lina Bo Bardi was born Achillina Bo in Rome on 5 December 1914, the oldest child of Enrico and Giovanna Bo. She showed an early appreciation for art, and despite her father’s lack of full support, she pursued architecture. She graduated from the Rome College of Architecture in 1939 at age 25, with a final project titled “The Maternity and Infancy Care Centre.” She then moved to Milan to work with architect Carlo Pagani at the Studio Bo e Pagani. Until 1943, she collaborated with architect and designer Giò Ponti on the magazine *Lo Stile*. In 1942, she opened her own studio on Via Gesù, but wartime scarcity of work forced her to take up illustration for newspapers and magazines such as *Stile*, *Grazia*, and *Tempo*. Her office was destroyed by an aerial bombing in 1943. From 1944 to 1945, she served as Deputy Director of *Domus* magazine. This experience deepened her involvement with the Italian Communist Party. In 1945, *Domus* sent her across Italy with Pagani and photographer Federico Patellani to document the country’s destruction. She also co-founded the weekly magazine *A – Attualità, Architettura, Abitazione, Arte* with Pagani and Bruno Zevi, and contributed to the newspaper *Milano Sera*. She participated in the First National Meeting for Reconstruction in Milan, arguing that reconstruction should address both physical and moral rebuilding.

In 1946, Bo Bardi moved to Rome and married art critic and journalist Pietro Maria Bardi. That October, the couple traveled to South America, finding post-war Italy difficult due to their involvement in the Italian resistance. In Rio de Janeiro, they were welcomed by the Institute of Brazilian Architects. Bo Bardi quickly re-established her practice in Brazil, a country that profoundly influenced her creative thinking. She and her husband co-founded the art magazine *Habitat*, whose title reflected her idea of an interior as a “habitat” designed to maximize human potential. In 1947, Assis Chateaubriand invited Pietro Maria Bardi to establish and run a Museum of Art. São Paulo was chosen over Bo Bardi’s preference for Rio. MASP (the São Paulo Museum of Art) was founded on 2 October, with temporary offices in the Diários Associados building. Bo Bardi designed the conversion of several floors into a museum; early sketches recalled the 1939 MoMA facade, but alterations were ultimately limited to the interior. She also designed new headquarters for Diários Associados and created jewelry using Brazilian gemstones. Soon after arriving, she began designing the couple’s home in Morumbi, then part of virgin forest south of São Paulo.

In 1948, the Studio d’Arte Palma was established on the 18th floor of a building by Polish architect Lucjan Korngold, bringing together Bo Bardi, Pietro Maria Bardi, Giancarlo Palanti, and Valeria Piacentini Cirell. In 1950, Bo Bardi and Palanti redesigned the MASP museum space, shifting from Beaux-Arts-style interiors toward exhibition design rooted in interwar avant-garde practices like those of El Lissitzky and the Deutscher Werkbund. Bo Bardi became a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1951, the same year she completed her first built work: her own “Glass House” in Morumbi. Italian rationalism shaped this first project, but her immersion in Brazilian culture soon made her thinking more expressive. In 1955, she became a lecturer at the Architecture and Urbanism Faculty of the University of São Paulo. In 1957, she submitted the manuscript “Contribuição Propedêutica ao Ensino da Teoria da Arquitetura” in hopes of winning a permanent position. In 1959, she collaborated with theater director Martim Gonçalves on the exhibition *Bahia in Ibirapuera*, which displayed artworks and craft objects.

Throughout her career, Bo Bardi promoted the social and cultural potential of architecture and design. She was known for her distinctive architectural illustrations, her habit of leaving poignant notes to herself, and her furniture and jewelry designs. Because she was both a foreigner and a woman, she struggled to gain acceptance among local Brazilian architects. Her popularity has grown since 2008, when a 1993 catalog of her works was republished. Several of her product designs have been revived, and exhibitions such as her 1968 show of glass and concrete easels have been recreated. She died on 20 March 1992.