Yukio Futagawa Knihy

Built in the early 1950s in São Paulo, Lina Bo Bardis Casa de Vidro (Glass House) was the first real architectural project she completed after her arrival in Brazil. Built as a home for herself and her husband, it clearly demonstrates how architecture and design should keep a distance from individuals, society or community, and the natural environment a stance that would come to underlie all of the Italian-born architects subsequent works. Photographed by master architectural photographer Yukio Futagawa, Casa de Vidro still appears as its designer intended, a prototype that responded to a new society, rising directly from the earth and embedded in the surrounding jungle.

Begun in São Paulo in 1964 by Paulo Mendes da Rocha when he was just 36 years old, the Brazilian architects own residence was highly influential in his home country but little published due to the political climate of the time. An entire heroic phase of Brazilian architecture, with significant works by Oscar Niemeyer, Lina Bo Bardi, and others, was impacted by the Brazils increasing cultural isolation. Mendes da Rochas work was not recognised internationally until the 1990s, which led to a rediscovery of this house as a kind of manifesto. Its brutalist reinforced concrete surfaces and structural simplicity resonate with history in this series of photographs by Yukio Futagawa.

Residential Masterpieces 19Philip Johnson / Glass HouseText by Kengo KumaPhotographed by Yukio Futagawa