Burle Marx Foundation

In 1949 Roberto Burle Marx bought a 3.6 ha estate in Barra de Guaratiba outside Rio de Janeiro and began making a garden. It was given to the government in 1985 and Burle Marx died in 1994. The garden is now called the Sítio Roberto Burle Marx. It is beautiful, as one would expect from South America's foremost landscape architect, and it holds an important tropical botanical collection. Burle Marx was also an abstract painter and his garden has a famous abstract wall with bubbling fountains. One could in fact say that his work is not in the  Abstract International Modern Style - because it uses local themes, plants and materials. It is a brilliantly context-sensitive design.