Gillo Dorfles e il dibattito sull’architettura brasiliana (1946-1980)

Abstract

Gillo Dorfles is one of the main reference authors on modern international architecture studies, particularly in the post WWII period. In his article “Attualità del barocco” published in 1946, the Italian critic pointed out new categories of modern design, well beyond aesthetics based on a prerogative of functional exclusivity in architecture. In his essay “Barocco nell’architetturamoderna” (1951), Dorfles pointed to the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and Alvar Aalto as virtuous expressions of the balance between form and function. Dorfles’ perception of Brazilian architecture derives from his interest in the architectural design of the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro, of the Brazilian Pavilion at the World Fair in New York, of Pampulha in Minas Gerais and other works by Niemeyer in Brazil, disseminated in Europe in the catalog of the MoMA exhibition titled “Brazil Builds”. Dorfles viewpoint was integrated by the trend of that time, that emphasized a type of architecture well detached from Bauhaus’ functionalist model. Dorfles found newconcepts to interpret this new wave in architecture that developed in the first phase of the Cold War in Europe, and his position on Brazilian art was very attentive to changes in modern architecture.