Architecture and the environment: the idea of adaptability to the environment in modernistic speech

Abstract

Frequently since the mid-20th century, architects and historians of architecture have described Brazilian modern architecture as being adaptable to the environment. In Brazil, the concern with how well architecture fits local conditions began in the 19th and early 20th century, when this concern went as far as becoming of pivotal importance in supporting neocolonial architecture. A member of the neocolonial movement in the 1920s and the main ideologist of the modern movement in Brazil after 1930, Lucio Costa introduced the bases of the modernist ideas on the compatibility of this architecture with the demands of adapting to the environment. The current article discusses the origin and diffusion of the notion of adaptability of architecture to the local conditions in Brazil, as well as how this notion is reflected in the production of national architects.