PARIS UNESCO
UNESCO Headquarters in Paris was conceived as a “living museum”, where architecture, art and landscape would form a single cultural experience. Designed by Marcel Breuer, Pier Luigi Nervi and Bernard Zehrfuss, the headquarters emerged from the work of an international committee that included Lucio Costa, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Sven Markelius and Ernesto Rogers, and was inaugurated in 1958. Today, UNESCO Headquarters remains one of the twentieth century’s most important architectural ensembles, bringing together works by many of the world’s leading architects and artists.
At the suggestion of Lucio Costa, Roberto Burle Marx was commissioned to design the six courtyards and the piazza of the Miollis Building between 1963 and 1964, creating what remains one of his most important works outside Brazil. The UNESCO ensemble remains his only realised work for UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and one of his very few projects in Europe.
Gardens Beneath the Architecture
To expand office space without compromising the aesthetics of the Breuer, Nervi and Zehrfuss building, new offices were placed two floors below ground, organised around six courtyards. The composition commissioned from Burle Marx had a precise function: to bring natural light to these underground offices, built on a platform covering the parking areas and allowing only a shallow layer of topsoil. It was within this extreme constraint that he created one of his most poetic works.
The Original Designs
The original gouache studies show each of the six courtyards as its own composition, a painting seen from above. Built from a limited vocabulary of materials including gravel, cut stone, concrete, earth, grass and planting, the six compositions play off one another like movements in a single piece of music, retaining the simplicity Burle Marx always sought. Together, they reveal him thinking not only as a landscape architect, but also as a painter.
The Original Model
The original model provides a rare three-dimensional understanding of Burle Marx’s vision for the entire ensemble before decades of later alterations. It reveals the relationship between the six courtyards, the piazza and the surrounding architecture, creating moments of contemplation within the institutional rhythm of UNESCO.
The Courtyards
Reading the UNESCO Ensemble
Few scholars have contributed more to the understanding of Roberto Burle Marx's work than the art historian Jacques Leenhardt. Having known and interviewed the artist personally, he has devoted decades to interpreting his work. His essay on the UNESCO ensemble offers one of the most profound readings ever written of this remarkable work. Five ideas, in particular, illuminate the artistic vision behind the project, in Jacques Leenhardt's own words:
'The six patios are a type of enclosed, or "secret" garden.'
'These enclosed gardens can be in dialogue only with the architecture.'
'They bring to architectonic rigidity two elements that it lacks: movement and colour.'
'The mirror-pools restore to the eye the verticality of the sky.'
'Restoring a garden never means copying a hypothetical original. It means recovering the spirit of the place.'
Current State and Restoration
Sixty years after their completion, the courtyards bear half a century of makeshift upkeep and invasive landscaping. The deterioration of the waterproofing system forced the water supply to the pools to be cut off, disfiguring the composition. The original piazza, of which only photographs remain, has disappeared entirely.
The Roberto Burle Marx Foundation is working in partnership with UNESCO to recover the artistic integrity of the original composition, while respecting the historical evolution of the site.
The Patios Today
In April 2026, Andrea Burle Webb, Founder and Chair of the Roberto Burle Marx Foundation, was granted access by UNESCO to inspect all six patios and the Piazza at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
The photographs below document the current condition of Roberto Burle Marx's six patios and the Piazza after decades without comprehensive conservation. Together, they provide a record of this remarkable work in preparation for its restoration.
Closing
More than sixty years after their creation, these extraordinary spaces continue to demonstrate Roberto Burle Marx’s unique ability to unite architecture, art and landscape. Restoring this ensemble is about more than preserving a historic work. It is about returning to UNESCO an essential part of its founding vision.
Call to Action
Roberto Burle Marx tending flowers at his home © Burle Marx Landscape Design Studio, Rio de Janeiro.
The photographs used in galleries: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 on this page are © Burle Marx Foundation Archives. All rights reserved.
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