The design languages of Roberto Burle Marx: application and characterization by shape grammar

Author(s)

Carlos Eduardo Verzola Vaz

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo
• Defense date: 2009-01-27

Examining board members

Maria Gabriela Caffarena Celani; Leandro Silva Medrano; José Manuel Pinto Duarte

• Advisor: Maria Gabriela Caffarena Celani

Abstract

The goal of This research was to study the work of Roberto Burle Marx in order to understand, by means of logical methods, how he elaborated the visual compositions in his landscapes projects. The shape gramma formalism, created by Stiny & Gips in the 1970's, was used as an analytical tool. This method was applied to study a group of flowerbed islands in the water mirrors of the Ministry of Forgein Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Union Court of Audit, in Brasilia. Inthe final stage of the work a simplified version of the grammar was tested by architecture students of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Besides, different tests were carried out and the compositions developed by the students were compared to those developed by Burle Marx. The tests were designed to prove the effectiveness of the shape grammar developed in the research to analyze compositions created by the brazilian landscape designer. (AU)