Lelé: Dialogues with Neutra and Prouvé

By André Marques

The sixth book of "Latin America: Thoughts" collection, with foreword by Abilio Guerra and afterword by Paulo Bruna, brings André Marques' research on the work of architect João Filgueiras Lima, Lelé, in its aspects of technology and interaction with the environment. The author also establishes relationships between Lelé's design strategies with those of the French builder Jean Prouvé and the Austrian architect Richard Neutra.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Romano Guerra Editora
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9786587205069

Book preview

To Albino, Cacilda and Fernanda

LATIN AMERICA: THOUGHTS

Romano Guerra Editora

Nhamerica Plataform

MANAGEMENT COORDINATION

Abilio Guerra, Fernando Luiz Lara and Silvana Romano Santos

LELÉ: DIALOGUES WITH NEUTRA AND PROUVÉ

André Marques

Brasil 6

FOREWORD

Abilio Guerra

AFTERWORD

Paulo Bruna

EDITORIAL STAFF

Abilio Guerra and Fernanda Critelli

TRANSLATION

Thomas Leirner Goldenstein and Fernanda Critelli

TRANSLATION REVIEW

Fernanda Critelli, Fernando Luiz Lara and Felipe Rodrigues

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Maria Claudia Levy e Ana Luiza David (Goma Oficina)

FORMATTING

Fernanda Critelli

E-BOOK FORMATTING

Natalli Tami Kussunoki

ROMANO GUERRA EDITORA

Nhamerica

foreword

how a thesis is written

abilio guerra

the monk and the hippie:

architecture and society

architecture and industry:

dialoguing with jean prouvé

architecture and environment: dialoguing with richard neutra

chosen designs

afterword

observations as they were conclusions

paulo bruna

bibliography

foreword

how a thesis is written

abilio guerra

a new book is always a reason to celebrate. in times when culture is under strict siege, it becomes a motive for reflection. the book we present hereby – ‘lelé: dialogues with neutra and prouvé,’ by andré marques – results from a master’s thesis research¹ developed at fau mackenzie.² it was up to me the privilege to participate in its confection officially as supervisor and, in practice, as an enthusiastic interlocutor

about the theme. João Filgueiras Lima’s imaginary dialogues with Richard Neutra and Jean Prouvé are a reflection of backstage debates between researcher and supervisor, as it is also a reflection of varied mediations: Textual discussion with other researchers, frequent dialogue with the architect (and object of study), casual chitchat with colleagues, and passionate debate with the professors during the qualification exam.

I argue here how tangled are individual and collective spectrums enrolled in an authorial work. Few years later, I put myself a similar challenge when reviewing Eduardo Ferroni’s master’s thesis on architect Salvador Candia.³ The ambition was to relate the thesis with the academic production taken at Brazilian graduate programs in the field of architecture and urbanism. I highlighted at that moment that the critic review process occurred after the 1990s, when dissertations and thesis opened space for new characters – specially the foreign architects living in Brazil that were so relevant in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other capital cities. They were also relevant for new interpretations – particularly a new look over Brazilian architects whose work escapes from the traditional formula that privileges native architecture’s national character.⁴

On the list of architects studied by academic researches there are not only the most famous first modern generation – Flávio de Carvalho, Oscar Niemeyer, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Vilanova Artigas, Rino Levi, Oswaldo Bratke, Lúcio Costa, Jorge Machado Moreira, Irmãos Roberto –, but also many who stand out next, like Attilio Correa Lima, Francisco Bolonha, Alcides da Rocha Miranda, Severiano Porto, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Pedro Paulo de Melo Saraiva, Abrahão Sanovicz, Carlos Millán, Eduardo Kneese de Mello, David Libeskind, Flávio Império, Sérgio Ferro, Rodrigo Lefrève, among others. Even some active professionals become object of monographs – that is the case of Eduardo de Almeida and of the tandem Marcelo Ferraz and Francisco Fanucci.

As I did not know all sources, in the broad range of academic scholarships that I worked on up to that moment there is none on João Filgueiras Lima, architect whose work was already widely known after the monographic book edited by Giancarlo Latorraca in 2000.⁵ By forgetting about the architect, at least four master’s thesis already developed in important graduate programs stayed out of the inventory: The ones of Elane Ribeiro Peixoto, developed in 1996 at FAU USP;⁶ Gislene Passos Ribeiro, 2004 at FAU Mackenzie;⁷ Jorge Isaac Perén Montero, 2006 at EESC USP;⁸ and Eduardo Westphal, 2007 at FA UFRGS.⁹

This omission would be unlikely if I had written the review the following year. In 2009, Museu da Casa Brasileira – MCB’s technical director Giancarlo Latorraca invited the publishing company Romano Guerra Editora to edit two publications related to Lelé: A catalog for the exhibition that would be held by the museum in the following year, from July 20 to September 19, 2010; and a book written by the architect himself, where he narrated his architectonic and urbanistic experience in the health field. The catalog, however, was published without our participation¹⁰ and launched during the exhibition, while the book edition took longer than we had foreseen and it was finalized by RG only in 2012.¹¹

My relatively superficial and scarce knowledge on Lelé’s work would change completely after meeting André Marques during FAU Mackenzie’s graduate admission exam. In that occasion, the applicant already manifested his intention to develop a master research on João Filgueiras Lima’s work, and demonstrated general and specific knowledge that called my attention. After being approved, we met two times in Lelé’s exhibition at MCB – at random in the first time; and the second, scheduled, when we saw and discussed together the exhibit and, also, we sealed the deal for supervision.¹²

After that, data and information exponentially expanded, once I got more familiar with Lelé’s designs during the book edition, at the sime time André provided me an infinite number of information on the architect’s works and personal trajectory.¹³ Unlimited curiosity and non-stop disposition, the ideal combination for a fruitful investigation: To cover the available bibliography on the architect, to visit the discussed works, to interview the architect whenever possible, to study his designs, to redraw his sketches… It would not be exaggerated to say that, in some level, André Marques mimicked the character himself. He even started to wear a blue Maoist jacket, so common in Lelé’s clothing, in order to discover the symbolism that the gesture expressed.¹⁴

The monographic works missing from my review came to my knowledge through André Marques. Beyond the four theses already discussed, another two academic texts developed at FAU USP were discovered by the researcher: The master’s thesis of Cristina Câncio Trigo, 2009;¹⁵ and the doctoral dissertation of Ana Gabriella Lima Guimarães, 2010.¹⁶ Apart from the others, this first one focus its interests on the built work (of which they did a panorama), the later highlights Lelé’s connections with international architecture, when she establishes benchmarks and/or similarities between Lelé’s works and the designs of high-tech architects such as Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimshaw, Michael Hopkins, and Renzo Piano, among others.¹⁷ This dissertation was inspiring due its discussion on the relation between Lelé’s work and serially produced architecture – one of the binomials explained by André Marques, alongside the environmental preoccupation.

However, a few master thesis escaped from the researcher and his supervisor’s attention: The one of Ana Gabriella Lima Guimarães herself, presented in 2003 at School of Engineering at São Carlos under Hugo Segawa’s supervision,¹⁸ and the one of Adalberto Vilela, supervised by experienced Sylvia Ficher and presented in January 2012 at FAU UNB.¹⁹ These researches would have been extremely useful, because they link Lelé’s designs to Richard Neutra’s work and line of thought,²⁰ especially the environmental preoccupation – one of the binomials explained by André Marques, alongside the lightweight industrialization proposed by Prouvé. Lastly, I highlight the absence of Mariele Lukiantchuki’s thesis presented in 2010 at EESC USP, that would also have been useful to Marques’ argument once it discusses on Sarah Hospital, one of the four projects analyzed in the last chapter.²¹

It is also worth to recall that Neutra’s experience in Puerto Rico, later published in the book Architecture of Social Concern in Regions of Mild Climate,²² had an impact on Brazil, a matter already discussed by Claudia Loreiro and Luiz Amorin in their 2002 paper.²³ And that the wide and diffuse interest over this book among Brazilian architects was highlighted by Adriana Irigoyen²⁴ and Patrícia Pimenta Azevedo Ribeiro²⁵ in their doctoral dissertations developed at FAU USP in 2005 and 2007, respectively. From 2011 on, I myself started to supervise the researches developed by Fernanda Critelli on the Austrian architect’s trips to Latin America and his relation with several Latin American countries, especially with Brazilian architecture. This research developed into three monographs at the levels of scientific initiation (2012), master (2015) and PhD (2020),²⁶ plus a paper present at Enanparq Natal 2012 seminar,²⁷ all of them raising questions, approaches and bibliographies that were imbedded in André Marques’ work. Lastly, Lelé himself, in various occasions, had revealed his interest on Neutra’s works, as one can see, for example, in the testimony he gave to Cynara Menezes in 2004.²⁸

This set of information will allow André Marques to delineate what he calls bioclimatic strategies, that is, fundamentally, João Filgueiras Lima’s constant search for an efficient passive ventilation in order to inflate air in his buildings; always prioritizing the force of nature instead of technology. The passage in which Marques relates the natural ventilation strategies of primitive or vernacular architecture with the reinterpretations proposed both by Lelé and Norman Foster is insightful. Through different paths, both architects came to very similar solutions for dry and hot weather. For the Sarah Kubitschek Salvador Hospital (1991), the Brazilian architect canalized wind into technical tunnels alongside the building, where the air is cooled down and filtered thanks to fountains strategic located on reflection pools (solution that he will once again use at Sarah Fortaleza Hospital, 1992). On the other hand, Foster will accurately study passive strategies both of Middle East traditional cities and desert tribes to design a wind capture tower with inner water splashes for cooling down the air that ventilates Masdar City (2007-2014), built in Abu Dhabi desert.²⁹

André Marques’ accuracy reveals itself in the discussion about the built works, with faithful description of the technical-constructive aspects and focused on real performance of the analyzed building. Thus, Abadiânia Transitory School (1982-1984) is presented to us with all its spatial and constructive qualities, but also with its environmental aspects’ flaws and limitations – the small natural lightening and ventilation sheds do not function properly. The researcher’s close attention identified in Lelé the constant preoccupation with performance, an action thought like an experimental laboratory based on recurrence and improvement. Therefore, the architect will experiment the same element in various projects, always improving it in light of the detected problems. In sum, to repeat and to improve are his design principles. The shed’s ever growing size that one can observe in his series of designs is understood as an evolution conquered with the constant adjustment of technical elements. According to André Marques, this process has an impact on Lelé’s work and line of thought: The search for an environmental adequate architecture that can be built with modular coordination and serial repetition.

Curiously, Richard Neutra and Jean Prouvé both travelled to Brazil in 1959 to attend the Extraordinary International AICA Congress, which discussed the theme New City: Synthesis of the Arts in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.³⁰The Brazilian future capital city (at that time still under construction) would later become the stage of João Filgueiras Lima’s relevant performance. There he became responsible for the construction of the University City’s buildings, especially the Science Central Institute – known as Minhocão and designed by Oscar Niemeyer –, and the Colina – housing buildings for the professors, designed by Lelé himself and built using precast elements.

If the relation with Richard Neutra is clearer and well documented, the one with Jean Prouvé