Sítio Roberto Burle Marx
Located in the west of Rio de Janeiro, the gardens are the result of a successful project that took more than 40 years to create by landscape architect and artist Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994), who used local plants and drew on modernist ideas to create a "living work of art" and a "landscape laboratory". The gardens, which were created in 1949, have the main characteristics that define Burle Marx's landscape gardens and have influenced the development of modern gardens internationally. The gardens are characterized by sinuous forms, lush mass plantings, architectural plant arrangements, strong color contrasts, the use of tropical plants, and the integration of traditional folk culture elements. By the late 1960s, the gardens had the most representative collection of Brazilian plants, as well as other rare tropical species. In the site, 3,500 tropical and subtropical plants grow in harmony with the region's native vegetation, especially mangroves, restingas (a unique coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest), and Atlantic forests. Sítio Roberto Burle Marx demonstrates the process of the concept of ecological forms, including social cooperation, which is the basis for environmental and cultural protection. It is the first modern tropical garden to be inscribed on the World Heritage List.