Fab 40: Culture Complex, Sao Paolo
Herzog & de Meuron's latest project is an ambitious and elegant addition to Brazil’s bustling megatropolis, consolidating key institutions from around Latin America’s largest cultural district into one vast, interconnected space. The complex will add a new 1740-seat dance theatre, a 400-seat experimental theatre, dance and music schools, and a library and museum dedicated to the performing arts.
At night, together with its vertical glass walls, the structure will form a luminescent tapestry across central São Paulo, and potentially be the catalyst for its rebirth. Local officials are looking to the project to bring the area back from the fringe, which may be a tall order for a cultural campus, but if anyone has proven the place-making power of architecture it’s Herzog & de Meuron. The project is scheduled for completion in 2014.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV concept
The AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Inside Izza Marrakech: A new riad where art and bohemian luxury meet
Honouring the late Bill Willis’ hedonistic style, Izza Marrakech fuses traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with the best of contemporary art
By Ty Gaskins Published
-
Clocking on: the bedside analogue timepieces that won’t alarm your aesthetic
We track down the only tick-tocks that matter, nine traditional alarm clocks that tell the time with minimum fuss and maximum visual impact
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Restoring São Paulo: Planta’s mesmerising Brazilian brand of midcentury ‘urban recycling’
Brazilian developer Planta Inc set out to restore São Paulo’s historic centre and return it to the heyday of tropical modernism
By Rainbow Nelson Published
-
All aboard Casa Quinta, floating in Brazil’s tropical rainforest
Casa Quinta by Brazilian studio Arquipélago appears to float at canopy level in the heart of the rainforest that flanks the picturesque town of Paraty on the coast between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro
By Rainbow Nelson Published
-
Feel like a movie? The top 50 films of all time according to Marcio Kogan
Marcio Kogan's top 50 films of all time; the architect taps into his passion for the moving image and shares with us his recommendations
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Studio mk27 and Marcio Kogan’s greatest hits: from voluptuous villas to relaxing retreats
Studio mk27, led by Wallpaper* guest editor Marcio Kogan, is behind buildings that make us swoon; here are the best of the best
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024: meet the practices
In the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024, our latest guide to exciting, emerging practices from around the world, 20 young studios show off their projects and passion
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
How guest editor Marcio Kogan, during a visit to the movies, ‘discovered that something else exists in the world, real poetry’
Marcio Kogan is a guest editor of Wallpaper* October 2024. In his dedicated section, we discover how the world of cinema’s loss was architecture’s gain when a feature film failed but a dream space creator rose from the ashes
By Rainbow Nelson Published
-
Brazilian modernism finds its latest expression in Studio Porto’s AG House
Studio Porto, an emerging Brazilian practice, joins the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A modernist São Paulo apartment finds a new lease of life
A spacious modernist São Paulo apartment in the neighbourhood of Higienópolis gets a thorough renovation by Brazilian architects Bloco Arquitetos
By Léa Teuscher Published