Casa da Flor

Thank you to Vida Fuleira for reminding us about Casa da Flor - linked to long ago on the old gmtPlus9 site in Japan. "...The Casa da Flor (House of the Flower), which is considered a masterpiece of spontaneous architecture in Brazil, must be preserved. It was built, from 1912 on, in São Pedro da Aldeia, state of Rio de Janeiro, by a black, poor man who earned his living at the local salt-works and who hardly had any kind of formal schooling. Between 1923 and 1985, when he died, Gabriel Joaquim dos Santos, guided by his dreams and a fertile imagination, kept embellishing his home with the materials he would pick up at the local domestic refuse heaps and civil construction waste piles. In order to preserve and make widely known Gabriel's house and his work, a group of admirers created, in 1987, the Society of Friends of Casa da Flor, currently Cultural Institute Casa da Flor, a civil, non-profit organization."