Architecture by Miguel Rodrigo Masure

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Lower Level


Arquitecto Miguel Rodrigo Masure
Casa Chaves
Lima, Peru
1958

Peruvian architect 'Miguel Rodrigo Masure' created the 'Casa Chavez' in 1958. This South American modernist gem has remained pretty much of the radar during the last 50 years. This minimal modern house is part of our forgotten modern architecture series where we pay respect to absolutely brilliant but unfortunately totally forgotten modern architects. These striking architectural drawings from the 1950's and 1960's feature beautiful minimal white modern houses with simple geometric forms and all white facades. Everything perfectly balanced.

'Casa Chavez' was completed in Lima Peru in the late 1950s. 'Casa Chavez' features minimal translucent spaces. The architecture of the home embraces nature with its expansive glass windows. The house is composed of two connection volumes and a net horizontal plane.

The approach of 'Casa Chavez' is in the same minimal style of Marcel Breuer. Mazuré Rodrigo's work was also influenced by the work of Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, among other architects who visited Latin America in those years.

The house is structured based on an orderly grid of columns. The ground floor, stone-lined or hidden by the landscape, helps to accentuate the light purist volumes. The roof is flat with no perceptible slope. The edges of the roof are topped by an elegant aluminum frame.

It is such a tragedy that for the most part only North American and European modern architects received great fame, with the exception of Oscar Niemeyer perhaps.

The architecture by Miguel Rodrigo Masure shows that there were plenty of modernist thinkers all over the world during the middle of the twentieth century; many of them did not receive the credit they deserved.

Image Credit: Aldo Facho Dede