Fazenda Vargem Grande, Clemente Gomes Estate, Areira, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Model 1:200 (Scale model, 1:200)

Roberto Burle Marx

1979-80

A plasteline scale model (1:200) by Roberto Burle Marx that lays out his landscape design for Fazenda Vargem Grande, arranging buildings, terraces and plantings to shape movement and views across a sloping estate.

The uniform pale modeling reads like a carved relief: low modernist pavilions, stepped terraces, a mosaic of reflective basins and rhythmic rows of stylized palm trees that register as sculptural gestures across the site.

The work exemplifies Burle Marx’s approach of treating gardens as modernist compositions—translating native plants, topography and architecture into abstract, painterly forms that helped redefine 20th‑century landscape architecture and Brazil’s cultural identity.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural model Architecture Design Landscape Modern art Plastic

Exhibitions

Brazil Builds

1943

Latin American Architecture Since 1945

1955

From Le Corbusier to Niemeyer: 1929–1949

1949

Painting and Sculpture in Architecture

1949