B R A Z I L’S BUSTLING BUSINESS HUB IS RICH IN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY,FEATURING SOME OF TODAY’S BIGGEST DESIGN ICONS

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY JONATHAN CANE

SEXY SÃO PAULO48 HOURS IN

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Livraria da Vila

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BRAZIL IS HOME TO SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOSTimportant modernists and iconic, provocative modernarchitecture. Brasilia, north of São Paulo, is the insanerealisation of an entire city built from scratch in theshape of a big bird. That city was built by OscarNiemeyer who, at 104 years old, is still buildingimaginative and controversial structures like the recentgiant white wedge Ibirapuera Auditorium (AvenidaPedro Álvares Cabral). It has Niemeyer’s characteristiccurvy approach to modernism and a giant red tongue asan entrance.

SEE BUILDINGS BY BRAZILContemporary modernists are producing no lessinteresting work. After seeing Niemeyer’s sinuousEdifício Copan (which is so big it has its own postalcode), I taxied to the quiet Jardins neighbourhood to seeesteemed local architect Isay Weinfeld’s design for theLivraria da Vila bookshop (Alameda Lorena 1731).

Back to the books: it’s not for nothing that Livraria daVila is on every archi-blog. Weinfeld has responded tothe local vernacular style by producing a heavy andbrutal concrete façade, which is subverted withwhimsical pivoting bookcases on street level which actas the doors. Natural light floods the low-ceilingedconcrete wonderland. I wished I could have spent mywhole day on the denim sofas reading, or to have been arich Portuguese toddler ensconced in the colourful Hans

Arpesque beanbags on the kiddies’ floor. But I am neithera Portuguese child nor a Portuguese reader and as SouthAmerica bookstores are famously un-English friendly, Iflipped through proudly-displayed architecture books ofNiemeyer and Lina Bo Bardi.

Ibirapuera Auditorium, Avenida Pedro álvares Cabral,w w w. a u d i t o r i o i b i ra p u e ra. co m . b r

Livraria da Vila bookshop, Alameda Lorena 1731

The remainder of my day was spent in most stimulatingconversation with artists Marcus Neustetter and StevenHobbs, architect Henning Rasmuss, other South Africandesign thinkers and a range of Brazilian academics,architects and urbanists at a south-south design paneldiscussion organised by DESIGNING_ZA. I imagine thiscould come across as a rather dreary way to spend anafternoon in Brazil but Paulistanos are so passionateabout design that talking to them about beauty is mostsexy indeed. And even if they weren’t so sexy (which theyare), in our tuxedos later that night drinking mojitos withSão Paulo’s elite, Zahira Asmal, and the South AfricanConsul General, Yusuf Omar, we felt pretty sexy. TheFreedom Day celebrations / DESIGNING_ZA booklaunch were hosted at Instituto Tomie Ohtake (Rua dosCoropés 88) one of São Paulo’s weirdest buildings,named after one of Brazil’s most famous artists.

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São PauloMuseum of Art.Instituto TomieOhtake.I b i ra p u e raAu d i t o r i u m

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Kaá restaurant.Alma Maria

tapas bar. PÃOb a k e ry

EAT DECADENT DININGA little drunk, and now alone, I ate dinner at Kaá, therestaurant that won Wallpaper's 2010 Design Awards forBest New Restaurant Design. As you enter, through asmall doorway on your right is a large modern pond anda dramatic 10 000-plant triple-volume vertical garden.The food is thoughtful Italian. I ate lobster sausages,drank Chilean wine and flirted with any Paulistano whowould flirt back in an enchanting indoor garden.

Early the next morning I grabbed some of those oddcheese-filled breads and strong coffee for breakfast fromPÃO. The six-seater wood-panelled bakery is always full,so I smoked a cigarette while perched on the benchoutside watching the stylish residents of Jardins on theirway to work.

Kaá, Av. Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek, 279, +55 113045 0043, www.kaarestaurante.com

PÃO, Rua Bela Cintra 1618, +55 11 2193 2116

SEE ARCHITECTURAL ARTA little rained on, my Art Morning began at MASP – Th eSão Paulo Museum of Art. This beast of a building,designed by Lina Bo Bardi in 1968, is regarded as one ofB ra z i l ’s most important modernist buildings. The galleryis held midair by red concrete colonnades leaving ashadowy, austere forum below. The gallery is a faded

beauty: access is no longer up into the floor via thecantilever steps but through a safer side-entry thatundermines the integrity of the building’s flow. Theircollection has a few important works but generally showswearily curated classics. The Di Chirico collection onview when I was there was as eerie as the space itself.

In direct contrast, the Pinacoteca do Estado is asensitively renovated art gallery. The 1897 building by deAzevedo and Rossi was stripped down to the bricks byarchitect Paulo Mendes da Rocha in 1998. Steelwalkways and skylights have produced a series ofgenerously-lit interior courtyards. The curatorial vision isfresh and creative; Brazilian modernism, 19th Centurylandscapes and contemporary art are intelligentlyarranged. The ancient-looking building, surrounded by astately park, is one of the few romantic moments I foundin brutalist São Paulo.

I had lunch at Alma Maria, a smart urban tapas spot onthe uber-fashionable Rua Oscar Freire. The wide, tallentrance is gated off by carved wooden trellis gates. I atelangoustine carpaccio and drank Brazilian beer.

The São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), AvenidaPaulista, 1578, +55 11 3251 5644, www.masp.art.br

Pinacoteca do Estado, Praça da Luz 2, +55 11 3324 1000

Alma Maria, Rua Oscar Freire 439, +55 11 3062 0047

The low-tech, neon pink and orange structure opens at both ends creating abreezy sunlit cloister and garden

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STAY EXPERIENCE “UNIQUE”Exhausted, sober and wet, I arrived back at Hotel Unique,the trendiest accommodation in São Paulo, which looks alittle like a tortoise sleeping on its back dreaming ofunicorns and sunsets. The building really is completelybonkers and was designed by architect Ruy Ohtake –designer of Instituto Tomie Ohtake and son of artist TomieOhtake. The Unique towers over the leafy area itoccupies and the poolside Unique Skye Bar offers themost beautiful city view I have ever seen. Getting drunkat sunset, next to the red pool, I looked at the city whichencircles the hotel and realised I had barely scratched thesurface of this big, big city.

Hotel Unique, Avenida Brigadeiro Luis Antonio 4700,+55 11 3055-4700, www.hotelunique.com.br

The Unique towers over the leafy area it occupies and the poolside Unique SkyeBar offers the most beautiful city view I have ever seen

HotelUnique.Unique SkyeBar

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