A methodology to identify the heritage attributes and values of a modernist landscape: Roberto Burle Marx’s Copacabana beach promenade in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Abstract

As new heritage categories have emerged, the process of identifying heritage value has become more complex, necessitating new tools to enable professionals to identify all attributes and values that determine the uniqueness of an asset before embarking upon its management and conservation. Burle Marx’s Copacabana promenade in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is representative of a modernist landscape design, and therefore, a cultural heritage asset. This article proposes a mixed methodology for identifying the heritage attributes and values of this modernist landscape through document analysis, site observations and surveys. This information is essential for the long-term conservation of the Copacabana promenade. Historical, aesthetic, technological and environmental values are represented in attributes that include the design itself, the calceteira technique and the selected tree species. The values and attributes of these assets inform the conservation strategies that are designed to end their abandonment and deterioration.

Keywords:

• Values
• attributes
• modern landscape
• protection
• methodology

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the institutions that have helped in the search for and collection of information: the Instituto do Patrimonio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, the Arquivo Noronha Santos of Rio de Janeiro, the Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, the Arquivo Nacional do Brasil, the Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, the Instituto Pereira Passos of Rio de Janeiro, the Instituto Estadual do Patrimônio Cultural de Rio de Janeiro and the Escritório Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The editing and revision of the publication has been financed by the "Grants for the Internationalisation of Research IUACC 2022 - Institute of Architecture and Construction Sciences" of the "VII Research and Transfer Plan" of the University of Seville.

Notes on contributors

Julia Rey-Pérez

Julia Rey-Pérez has a PhD in architecture and has lectured as Associate Professor in the Department of Architectural History, Theory and Composition at the University of Seville (USE) since 2015. Her research focuses on the role of heritage and culture in the sustainable development of historic and contemporary cities. In particular, she investigates sustainable urban strategies that can be adopted in local policies. She collaborated in writing the Management Plan for the Historic Urban Landscape of Seville and its heritage municipal buildings (2019–2021) and was co-director of the research project titled ‘Reassessment of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of the city of Cuenca from the strategies of sustainable development supported in the figure of the Historic Urban Landscape’ funded by the Office of Research at the University of Cuenca (Ecuador). She is a USE research member of UNESCO's Chair CREhAR and the Erasmus + project HERSUS. Since 2016, she has lectured in the Master of Sustainable City and Architecture (USE) and the Master in Anthropology: Management of Cultural Diversity, Heritage and Development. She is also a member of the research group HUM-666: ‘City, Architecture and Contemporary Heritage’ at the University of Seville.