Lina Bo Bardi: The Theory of Architectural Practice

The architect Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992) has long been considered one of the major modern architects of the twentieth century in Barzil. Her iconic Museum of Art of Sâo Paulo (1968), and the bold Social Service for Commerce Building-Pompéia, Sâo Paulo (1986), have gained recognition in recent years and her reputation is beginning to be acknowledged internationally. Bo Bardi´s major writins on architecture, however, have not been translated ultil now, and are not well known.

This book contains the first English-language translation of Propaedeutic Contribution to the Teaching of Architecture Theory (Habitat, Ltd. Sâo Paulo, 1957), a seminal text, published in Portuguese by the Italo-Brazilian Bo Bardi. It is arguably the first published writting on architectural theory by a practicing woman architect. Accompanying the translation is an introductory essay that interprets Bo Bardi´s text as a critical and constructive theory of architecture built from a collection of textual and visual artifacts, taking into account the specific historical sources and contemporaneous discourses from which it drawns.

The book provokes us to reflect on architectural education today, on the relevance of theory, the advantages of history, and ultimately on the caliber and constitution of future professionals in the discipline and the work that they will be prepared to contribute to the built environment.