Rowan Moore from The Guardian spotlights Ibirapuera Park in his collection of top urban green spaces. The park, a modernist masterpiece inaugurated in 1954, acts as Sao Paulo’s green lung, cleansing the air and combating pollution, vital for the city’s health. Its appeal lies in blending art, architecture, and nature, boasting iconic structures and lush greenery.

Sao Paulo is a harsh city, brooding and landlocked, which makes the 221 hectares of Ibirapuera Park all the more essential. It is the work of Roberto Burle Marx, the great landscape architect who combined cubist and surrealist inspiration with a deep knowledge of Brazilian botany. The park is lush, curvilinear in every direction, sometimes mysterious, sometimes breaking out into powerful colour. Burle Marx often played second fiddle to the architect Oscar Niemeyer, with whom he frequently collaborated. Here, the park is the star, even though it contains the huge and dazzling pavilion that Niemeyer designed for the city’s art biennial.