Signature · Landscape · São Paulo
Miranda Martinelli Magnoli
The pioneer of Brazilian landscape design: the architect-professor who founded the teaching of the discipline at FAU-USP and helped design iconic public spaces in São Paulo.
Who she was
Miranda Martinelli Magnoli (Italy, 1932 — São Paulo, 2017) was one of the greatest references in Brazilian landscape design. She arrived in Brazil at age six and graduated in architecture from FAU-USP in 1955, as one of only two women in her class. She became a tenured professor in 1973, with a thesis on public open spaces in large urban agglomerations, and was the founder of the Landscape and Environment group of disciplines at FAU-USP — training generations of landscape designers. Alongside classmate Rosa Kliass, she opened São Paulo’s first landscape-architecture practice. She is remembered as the pioneer who gave landscape design in the country its theoretical and academic foundation.
Concept
- Philosophy: landscape design as an urban and social matter, not merely an aesthetic one; public open spaces as the structure of the city and of quality of life.
- Typical planting: design that values topography, views and the collective use of open space (the Praça do Pôr do Sol viewpoint is the synthesis example).
- Awards and legacy: a national theoretical reference; honoured by ABAP, CAU and by the USP journal Paisagem e Ambiente (special edition, 2006).
Landmark gardens
- Pioneer of São Paulo’s first landscape-architecture practice, with Rosa Kliass.
- Theoretical and academic work that founded the teaching of landscape design at FAU-USP.
Signatures in the portfolio
No development in the collection carries this signature yet — it is here for the weight of the name in São Paulo's high end.
