In 1951, the Modern architect Oscar Niemeyer designed Casa das Canoas as a residence for him and for his family. The location was specifically chosen in a secluded hill near the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the middle of a reminiscent part of the Brazilian Rainforest. Niemeyer - who by this time was already known for using fluid lines in his architecture - gave the house organic shapes, so it would fit harmonically with the vegetation around it. He even used a natural rock as part of the construction of the house, as if it was arising from the building itself. The use of glass emphasizes the green of the surrounding, making it look like his residence would merge with the nature.

Niemeyer once told in an interview that Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, went to Brazil and had a look at his house. “It’s beautiful, but it cannot be mass-produced” was Gropius statement. Niemeyer was very shocked, as for the Brazilian architect it would not make sense to design a house with industrial standards for this context, especially because it was built in a very specific environment, involving the Rainforest and a rugged topography. 

The collage symbolizes the meeting of Niemeyer and Gropius, two architects who had very different ways of expressing their Modernity. It is made as a postcard that Gropius could have kept from his visit in Brazil, representing the exchange of ideas about dwelling. The photograph of the house is recent, and it shows that the building today has a poor state of maintenance. In the background of the collage, it’s possible to see “favelas” (as represented in a painting by Candido Portinari, a famous Brazilian artist). Favelas are typical Brazilian slum that occupies the most distant parts of the cities, especially on uneven terrains on the hills, surrounded by vegetation, just like Niemeyer’s, house. Aren’t the favelas a kind of mass-produced housing?