Firma Arquitetura Oficina Aberta   Brazil   Designed by the Brazilian studios Firma Arquitectura and Oficina Aberta, this simple volume was annexed to a preexisting preschool to accommodate extracurricular activities. Translucent sliding doors open up to the exterior. The construction uses ind

Kengo Kuma   Brazil   Opened in the year 2017, the Japan House in São Paulo is the first example developed within the ‘Japan House’ initiative, developed by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote various aspects of Japanese culture in the world. The building

Paulo Mendes da Rocha MMBB   Brazil   This collaboration between the Brazilian teams of Paulo Mendes da Rocha and MMBB Arquitetos transforms the former Mesbla department store in downtown São Paulo into a complex combining educational, artistic, sports, health, and leisure activities, su

b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos   Brazil   The envelope of ceramic pieces rendered in a variety of colors does much to give the building a personality of its own in the urban fabric, while distinguishing each apartment unit. The 25-floor tower is located in Itaim Bibi, a São Paulo neighborhoo

MAPA Architects   Brazil   Minimod Cutuçaba is a house built on the logic of plug & play prefabrication. It is formed by cubic modules – measuring 3 x 3 x 3 meters – prepared principally with wood, combinable in different ways to topographically, visually, and environmentally

MAPA   Brazil   Minimod Cutuçaba is a house built on the logic of plug & play prefabrication. It is formed by cubic modules – measuring 3 x 3 x 3 meters – prepared principally with wood, combinable in different ways to topographically, visually, and environmenta

Studio MK27   Brazil   As if it were a hut for postmodern beaux sauvages, the house appears in the clearing of a rainforest in the Brazil’s São Paulo region. But the mountainous topography and the dense vegetation, which could have inspired easy metaphors, do not determine

Jean Nouvel   Brazil   A 93-meter high residential tower, with a hotel and apartments, becomes a vertical extension of the adjoining Matarazzo park; a series of terraces form luxuriant green surfaces, planted with the same species that grow in the park.  Designed as a tree

Lina Bo Bardi   Brazil   In 1990 mayor Luiza Erundina hired Lina Bo Bardi to refurbish the Palácio das Indústrias, which, located next to Parque Dom Pedro II, was to become the new home for the São Paulo City Hall. The project included on the one hand the renovation of the o

Lina Bo Bardi   Brazil   The birthplace of avant-garde artistic movements, the Teatro Oficina was set up in the 1950s as an experimental drama company in the Bixiga neighborhood of São Paulo. The company’s building, which was partially destroyed in a fire, suffered several a

Lina Bo Bardi   Brazil   Suffocated by the intense traffic of São Paulo, the Anhangabaú Valley was the subject of a public competition held in 1981, and that called for ideas on how to revert a process that had transformed the park into an avenue with big parking areas. The

Lina Bo Bardi   Brazil   When Lina Bo Bardi visited the old metal barrel factory in the working class district of Pompéia with plans to build a sports and culture center, the space had already been occupied spontaneously by neighbors who spent the weekends amidst the warehou

Lina Bo Bardi   Brazil   Located in the residential neighbourhood of Morumbi, at only three hundred meters from the Glass House, the residence for Valéria P. Cirell blends seamlessly with the natural environment. The outside walls, built using traditional building techniques

Lina Bo Bardi   Brazil   On the boundaries of a suspended volume and a terraced plinth, the Museum of Art of São Paulo frames a collective space that functions as an agora and invites citizens to become part of the museum. In order to preserve the views over the northern par

Lina Bo Bardi   Brazil   Nestled in the exuberant vegetation of Mata Atlántica, in the neighborhood of Morumbi, São Paulo, the Glass House was designed by Lina Bo Bardi as a gathering place for artists, and as her own home. The main facade, transparent and built on stilts, a

Brasil Arquitetura   Brazil   This new performing arts center in São Paulo is situated on Praça das Artes, a place which gets its character through two representative historical buildings: the Dramatic and Musical Conservatory on the one hand, and the Cairo Cinema on the other. B

Isay Weinfeld   Brazil   The traditional type of residential layout around a courtyard adopts an unexpected vertical and dense scheme where privacy is ensured but homes are also opened to views.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha   Brazil   Used daily by approximately 120,000 people, the Parque Dom Pedro II Bus Station is located parallel to the Avenida do Estado in the São Paulo Cathedral district. Three rows of platforms with stops on either side organize bus traffic, with two accesse

Paulo Mendes da Rocha   Brazil   Drafted by Rino Levi just shortly before he passed away, the headquarters for the São Paulo Federation of Industries (FIESP) consisted of a plinth of communal uses at mid-height with regards to the street, and which was no longer functional twenty ye

Paulo Mendes da Rocha   Brazil   Built in 1887 according to a design by Ramos de Azevedo, the neoclassical building of the old São Paulo Arts and Crafts Lyceum had never been entirely completed. The project to accommodate the State Art Museum, one of the most important collections i

Paulo Mendes da Rocha   Brazil   The prefabrication strategy studied by Mendes da Rocha in 1964 for his own home was applied, thirty years later, in the house for the engineer Antônio Gerassi. Located in a residential quarter of São Paulo, the spatial concept of the house as an inha

Paulo Mendes da Rocha   Brazil   Devised as an abstract prism, the store reflects the spirit of Forma, retailer of some the best pieces manufactured by international design brands The items displayed needed to have a maximum visibility, not only for those walking by but also for pas

Paulo Mendes da Rocha   Brazil   Under a large concrete beam, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture unfolds along a sequence of partially buried platforms that guide visitors from the exterior to the interior without interruption. Located in a residential district in which the urban cod

Carlos Eduardo Comas   Rio de Janeiro was a port of call on Le Corbusier’s way to Argentina in October 1929, and the Swiss architect then likened its urbanization to “filling the tub of the Danaids.” The scenery was not alpine; nonetheless, he found it “violent and sublime

Luis Fernández-Galiano   A specter haunts the world: the rebellion of the middle classes. In the latest episode, the cities of Brazil and Turkey have been the scene of an uprising against political and economic elites by young people summoned through social networks and prov

Guilherme Wisnik   The oeuvre of Paulo Mendes da Rocha can be assessed through three buildings. The projects, separated by a thirty-year interval, all won public competitions. This is the case of the Paulistano Athletic Club Gymnasium (1958), in São Paulo; the Brazilia

In the Brazil of the beginning of the 20th century, the cultural colonialism was so strong that artists mainly imitated the European style: Roberto Burle Marx (São Paulo 1909, Rio de Janeiro 1994) had to go all the way to the Botanical Garden of Dalh

Corinna Del Bianco   Spontaneous Living Spaces in São Paulo

José Manuel Ballester Juan Manuel Bonet   São Paulo  2017  
Dan Galeria   - 228 Pages 

Sustainable Living Urban Model Lab