Carlos Barjas Millan, Perdizes, Sao Paulo, Brasil, 1964
OfHouses guest curated by CI-AA : “The D’Elboux House demonstrates the rationality of Carlos
Millan’s architecture. In the 1950s, Millan was introduced to
two strong influences: the Catholic Dominican Order and the
brutalism of Le Corbusier. They guided Millan towards rethinking his practice in search of a simpler and more rational
architecture, as opposed to a burgeoning culture of consumption at the time. Commissioned by a client connected to the
Dominican Order, the D’Elboux House is a project where the
combination of these two influences is the most remarkable.
The living spaces resemble monastic cells and the house is
reduced to the minimum necessities, both in its spatiality and
materiality. We think the formal and ideological asceticism
that guided the design of this house is also directly connected to the Dominican La Tourette Convent, designed two years
earlier by Le Corbusier. Millan died young, but despite his
brief, 15 year career, he was able to reinvent his references into
a more social and politically oriented architecture that was
responsible, along with Artigas’ work, for the ideology behind
the Paulista Brutalism.” (Photos: © Joao Xavier.)
