Page - 112 - in Demolished Modified Endangered - Modelling Austrian Architecture Of The 20th Century

112 CASA FRONTINI BY BERNHARD RUDOFSKY Year 1941 Status Modified Material Foamboard Glue Scale 1:100 / 1:50 Model maker Barbara Gruber Bernard Rudofsky was commissioned by Virgilio Frontini to design a house for a family of five in São Paulo. The house was built from 1939 to 1941 on a nearly rectangular plot of 1600m² at the Rue Monte Alegre. The rooms of the building were centred around an inner courtyard which served as the main living room. Similar to a monastery garden, the corridors of the house were located around this patio. The dining room was an exception, as it was directly connected to the courtyard. The central patio had the dimensions of 8.5m x 7m. Three of its sides were bordered by columns and the fourth side was a blind wall with a fireplace in the middle. An oleander tree was planted on the opposite side of the patio. The living room opened up to the garden. The garden was surrounded by walls bordering the neighbours and the public street. The dining room was also connected to the garden by a recessed balcony. On the second floor were the bedrooms and another recessed balcony, closed to the garden but open to the inner courtyard. The building was demolished gradually over several years.1 1 Guarneri, Andrea Bocco (2003): Bernhard Rudofsky: A Human Designer. Wien: Springer-Verlag. 277-278.