Flávio de Carvalho, landscape architect

Abstract

This article highlights Flávio de Carvalho (1899-1973) as an important precursor of modern landscaping in Brazil, although his contributions to the field of landscape design and his theoretical reflection on nature, landscape and vegetation have yet to be duly recognized. A detailed analysis of his projects is conducted, focusing on the 1920s and 1930s, when the artist began to participate in São Paulo’s cultural milieu, dialoguing with modernist intellectuals and artists. These works, analyzed in light of core aspects of modern landscaping—such as the denial of historicism, the influence of the avant-gardes, the search for the synthesis of arts, the appreciation of spatial three-dimensionality, the emphasis on leisure and active uses of open spaces, and the recognition of the botanical and symbolic qualities of vegetation—show how Carvalho’s “theoretical-plastic formulations” for the problem of open spaces provide a new aesthetic and conceptual framework for Brazilian landscaping, contributing to a broader renewal movement that would later be consolidated by Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994).