Rio de Janeiro (RJ), 1946
Landscape architect: Roberto Burle Marx
Botanist: Henrique Lahmeyer de Mello Barreto
New project | 1961
Burle Marx Office
Landscape architect: Roberto Burle Marx
Associated architects: Júlio César Pessolani Zavala, John Godfrey Stoddart, Fernando Tábora Pena and Maurício César Monte
In his first project for the Rio de Janeiro Zoological Garden, created in 1946, Burle Marx proposed spaces that reproduced the different animals’ habitats. The animals were to be divided into groups and kept free. The project integrates fauna and flora, with enough care so that aesthetics and functionality coexisted without conflicts. It also exposes the need to adapt animals and plants to the environment. At this time, he relied on the collaboration of botanist Henrique Lahmeyer de Mello Barreto.
However, the revolutionary proposal was not implemented, as at the time zoos kept animals fenced, displayed in cages. Thus, the zoo, located in Quinta da Boa Vista Garden in the São Cristóvão neighbourhood in Rio, occupying a large green area in the middle of the city’s central region, spent decades applying this old model. Years later, in 1961, the Burle Marx Office created a new project, for which the blueprints show a more traditional structure, with indications of cage areas and display windows. There is no detailed information about its implementation.
