Although Lina Bo Bardi was not registered as a professional architect in Brazil until 1955, she played an integral role in designing and building her house in São Paolo, built between 1951 and 1952. The Bardi residence was the first house built in São Paolo’s Morumbi neighborhood and would become a meeting place for many artists and intellectuals. Known today as the “Casa de Vidro,” or “Glass House,” the home features an open floor plan enclosed by wide floor-to-ceiling glass windows that look out onto the lush forest, celebrating Bo Bardi’s “reverence for nature and simple things.”
Lina Bo and P.M. Bardi house in Morumbi, Sao Paolo, 1949-52, view from the northeastern side showing main glazed volume. Photo by Nelson Kon.
Bo Bardi refused to furnish her home with sofas, opting instead for chairs of her own design as seating for her guests. One of the most iconic chairs in her home was her sleek bowl chair, designed in 1951. This chair features a concave, upholstered seat upon a four-legged, simple steel support. Only a few of these chairs were ever made as the design was never industrialized. However, Bo Bardi’s bowl chair was rereleased in a limited run of 500 in 2012.
Lina Bo Bardi, Bardi Bowl chair in steel and leather, c. 1951. Photo by Nelson Kon.
In Bo Bardi’s “Glass House,” one could relax in a bowl chair amid the Bardis’ artworks, possessions, and books and gaze out at a rainforest vista. But what would you do in your own bowl chair?
We can’t give away one of these chairs (alas), but we would love to give you a copy of our brand new book Lina Bo Bardi, by Zeuler R. M. de A. Lima. To win, send us an email by 12/19/2013 and tell us what color (or fabric) your ideal bowl chair would be, where it would be situated, and what book you would read while sitting in it (in addition to Lima’s book, of course). Each of the three best submissions will receive a copy of this gorgeous book.
