Lucio Costa and the Construction of Brazilianness in Architecture

Was there a Brazilian race? In the 1930s, responding to state-sponsored commissions, Brazilian artists and architects endeavored to answer this question. In this lecture Patricio del Real returns to the construction of Brazilianness in architecture galvanized by the modernist conversion of architect and theoretician Lucio Costa. He draws a larger intellectual European geography of racialization that hides behind Costa’s well-known turn to Portuguese colonial traditions as a means to negotiate an inescapable milieu and racial birthmark of Brazilian culture. This lecture is part of a new book titled, “Tropical Whiteness: Notes on Modern Architecture and Race in the 20^th Century” which unravels the invisibility of whiteness and the supposed “racelessness” of modern architecture.

Patricio del Real is known for his expertise in the field of architecture and architectural history, with a focus in the Americas. He is Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. His work examines the cultural ecology of architecture in intersections of buildings, politics, and race, with a particular emphasis on how architecture serves as a medium for symbolic and material ideological expressions.

Scientific Organization: Amy Chang

_{Image: Brazilian President Gétulio Vargas and Minister Gustavo Capanema (third and second from left) admiring Celso Antônio's Mulher Reclinada during the official opening of the Ministry of Education and Public Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 3, 1945. Arquivo Gustavo Capanema, FGV CPDOC}