Biography Lina: from Italy to Brazil "Brazil is twice my country" Achillina Bo was born in Rome, Italy, on December 5th, 1914. She graduated from the Architecture College of Rome University and, after having begun her professional life, she moved to Milan where she started to work in the office of Giò Ponti, director of Triennale di Milano and "Domus Magazine". After the beginning of the World War II, already working in her own architecture office, Lina experiences a phase of lack of work. As a consequence, she illustrates and writes to newspapers and magazines such as "Stile", "Tempo", "Grazia", "Vetrina" and "l'Illustrazione Italiana", besides editing the collection "Quaderni di Domus". On August 13, 1943, a great bombardment occurs over Milan and destroys Lina's office. She enters the clandestine Comunist Party and her family's apartment becomes a meeting point of Italian intellectuals and artists involved in the political movement. Right after the end of the War, Lina travels all around Italy to write an essay about the regions destroyed by the conflicts. In Rome, she founds the weekly magazine "A Cultura della Vita" , with Bruno Zevi, and participates in the National Congress for Reconstruction. In 1946, Lina marries Pietro Maria Bardi, whose name she starts to use. Months later, they travel to Brazil. In reception parties in Rio de Janeiro, they meet Brazilian personalities such as Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Rocha Miranda, Burle Marx and Assis Chateaubriand, from whom Pietro receives the invitation to found and direct a museum of art in the country. A building projected by Lina would later house the Museum of Art of São Paulo, MASP, the most important museum in Latin America. The architect naturalizes to become Brazilian in 1951, making official her passion for the country that had welcomed her years earlier. About that, she declares: "When we are born, we chose nothing. I was not born here, I chose this country to live. This is the reason why Brazil is my country twice, it is my "Chosen Nation". And I feel a citizen in all of its cities and towns". It was also in 1951 that the construction of the Glass House was concluded. Raised in a 7000m2 piece of land, it was the first residence in the Morumbi neighborhood. It was, gradually, surrounded by species of the Atlantic Forest and its garden is, nowadays, a preserved sample of the old Brazilian Forest with rare plants. Up to the 90's, Lina keeps intensely active in all areas of culture, having participated in various projects in theater, architecture, cinema and arts in Brazil and foreign countries. Besides her work as an architect, her involvement as a furniture and jewels designer, artist, scenery and wardrobe producer, organizer and curator of many exhibits deserves attention and respect. Lina passes away in the Glass House on March 20th, 1992, making her declared dream of working up to the end come true: she leaves the expressive projects for the new headquarters of São Paulo's city hall and for the Cultural Center Vera Cruz.

The living room of the Glass House, 1952 Fernando Albuquerque