Which Brazilian architect designed the Brutalist São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP)?

The Brazilian architect who designed the Brutalist São Paulo Museum of Art, or MASP, was Lina Bo Bardi.

Bo Bardi designed MASP’s famous headquarters on Avenida Paulista with engineer José Carlos Figueiredo Ferraz. Construction began in 1957, and the building opened in 1968. Its enormous suspended volume is held above the ground by four supports and long reinforced-concrete beams, leaving a broad public plaza beneath it.

The design responded to a crucial site condition: the former Belvedere Trianon site had to preserve views across São Paulo. Bo Bardi solved the problem with both an elevated block and underground spaces. The resulting open span became one of the city’s best-known civic spaces.

MASP is sometimes confused with projects by Oscar Niemeyer or other major Brazilian modernists. Bo Bardi’s signature is especially visible inside, where her original “crystal easels” displayed paintings without conventional walls or chronological groupings.