Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha is captured at work in this photoset by photographer Marc Goodwin, which offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of 20 architecture offices in São Paulo.
The São Paulo series is the latest in Goodwin’s project to document architecture studios in cities across the world, following recent trips to workplaces Mexico City, Panama City and Los Angeles.
The set includes the workplace that Paulo Mendes da Rocha, one of Brazil’s most celebrated architects, has occupied since 1979. Goodwin said that meeting the 90-year-old architect, who he captured holding an architecture model, as a “highlight” of the trip.
“He was staggeringly youthful for a man nearly 90 years of age,” Goodwin told Dezeen. “I am quite sure he has more energy than me and he spoke without pause about several of his projects, walking around the room to point out and pick different models to explain them together with technical facts interspersed with witty anecdotes.”
“It felt a bit like meeting Le Corbusier and was a great honour,” he added.
The workplace of Studio MK27, founded in the 1970s by Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan, and FGMF Arquitetos, founded in 1991, are among the offices captured.
The photographer, who runs the studio Archmospheres, toured 20 offices in total – providing evidence of its booming architecture scene. He found a number in a cluster together.
“The studios are nearly all within a few blocks of each other in the Higienopolis neighbourhood which is a kind of living breathing museum of modernism,” Goodwin said.
“I think that speaks to how closely knit the architectural community is there,” he added.
In addition to this, a number of the workplaces host more than one studio: 23 Sul Arquitetura, Casa 14 Arquitetura, Entre Arquitetos, CR2 Arquitetura and Casa RA Arquitetura and Design are all located in one office building, along with structural engineering firm MR2 Soluçoes Estruturais.
Verso Arquitetura‘s office includes an atelier for a porcelain painter.
Most of the studios are pared-back, with many featuring exposed concrete ceilings and beams, and white-painted walls.
“The spaces where stripped down and functional, perhaps reflecting the economic downturn and political crisis the country is going through,” he added. “Each person I met with expressed great concern over the future of Brazil.”
Take a look inside all 2o São Paulo studios below:
Aflalo/gasperini Arquitetos
In this space since: 1994
Number of employees: 54
Building’s former use: office building
Andrade Morettin
In this space since: 2005
Number of employees: 14
Building’s former use: offices
Bacco Arquitetos Associados
In this space since: 2012
Number of employees: 17
Building’s former use: offices
BNA / Transversal / 2SMC / Planomotor / SG Arquitetura
In this space since: 2013
Number of employees: 22
Building’s former use: offices
Brasil Arquitetura Ltda
In this space since: 1985
Number of employees: 10
Building’s former use: a little house
Paulo Mendes da Rocha
In this space since: 1979
Number of employees: 30
Building’s former use: Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil (IAB)
FGMF Arquitetos
In this space since: 2018
Number of employees: 54
Building’s former use: store
23 Sul Arquitetura, Casa 14 Arquitetura, Entre Arquitetos, Cecilia Reichstul Arquitetura, MR2 Soluçoes Estruturais and Casa RA Arquitetura and Design
In this space since: each office has been here for a different time, and each one has a different number of employees
Building’s former use: it has always been an office
Geral Arquitetos
In this space since: 2006
Number of employees: 23
Building’s former use: offices
Grupo SP
In this space since: 2014
Number of employees: 9
Building’s former use: offices
H + F Arquitetos
In this space since: 2002
Number of employees: 12
Building’s former use: mixed-use commercial gallery
Keila Costa (+K Arquitetos)
In this space since: 2014
Number of employees: 02
Building’s former use: offices
Metro Arquitetos Associados
In this space since: 2012
Number of employees: 10
Building’s former use: offices
Studio MK27
In this space since: 1978
Number of employees: 34
Building’s former use: optician and studio
MMBB Arquitetos
In this space since: 2001
Number of employees: 10
Building’s former use: the same: offices
Nitsche Arquitetos
In this space since: 2008
Number of employees: 15
Building’s former use: offices
SIAA Arquitetos Ltda, Paula Zemel and Marcelo Pontes de Carvalho
In this space since: 2008
Number of employees: 14
Building’s former use: offices
SPBR Arquitetos and Angelo Bucci
In this space since: 2003
Number of employees: 5
Building’s former use: offices
Tacoa Arquitetos Associados
In this space since: January 2019
Number of employees: 2
Building’s former use: offices
Verso Arquitetura
In this space since: September/2018
Number of employees: 4
Building’s former use: artist’s studio
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