Studio Arthur Casas’ enthralling biophilic retail space for +55design
Studio Arthur Casas creates a São Paulo store inspired by Brazilian modernism for brand +55design

Fran Parente - Photography
Designed by the locally based architect Arthur Casas and his team, the exquisite +55design store in São Paulo highlights Brazilian modernism, with its clean lines, perforated walls and lush greenery composed of native Brazilian species. Meanwhile, the neutral and minimalist landscape inside the store allows for a flexible layout, able to showcase varied displays of furniture and objects.
The monochrome materiality in the walls, ceiling and flooring gives the desired ‘blank canvas’ character in this project. The earthy colour palette is complemented by the soft green of the permeable façade. Developed specially for +55design, this creates a dialogue with the landscaping by Leandro Reis from The Lapa Company.
With light as the greatest ally to its architecture, the store becomes a tropical exhibition space. The warm sunshine streams through an amorphous opening between ground floor and mezzanine. The glass roofing also allows for abundant natural lighting, brightening spaces and highlighting the furniture’s textures.
Casas wanted to create a space that let the products be the protagonists. He explains: ‘The project was thought of as searching for solutions to evidence the furniture, not the architecture.’
Inside the building, orthogonal dividers, made of metal and suede, emphasise ‘a surprising experience’, says Casas. The vegetation, featuring native Brazilian species, invades the retail space to create a contemporary, luxurious but sophisticated aesthetic, where nature and architecture meet. A built-in, artificial illumination system to simulate natural light adds to the welcoming ambience.
Furniture designed by Arthur Casas is available in store, including a line of outdoor pieces, ‘Golf’, made of wood, aluminium and plastic net.
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 shows
The Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to know
Designing the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
Premium patisserie Naya is Mayfair’s latest sweet spot
Heritage meets opulence at Naya bakery in Mayfair, London. With interiors by India Hicks and Anna Goulandris, the patisserie looks good enough to eat
-
The new MASP expansion in São Paulo goes tall
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) expands with a project named after Pietro Maria Bardi (the institution's first director), designed by Metro Architects
-
An Upstate Sao Paulo house embraces calm and the surrounding rolling hills
BGM House, an Upstate Sao Paulo house by Jacobsen Arquitetura, is a low, balanced affair making the most of its rural setting
-
Step inside the secret sanctuary of Rua Polonia House in São Paulo
Rua Polonia House by Gabriel Kogan and Guilherme Pianca together with Clara Werneck is an urban sanctuary in the bustling Brazilian metropolis
-
São Paulo's Pacaembu stadium gets a makeover: we go behind the scenes with architect Sol Camacho
Pacaembu stadium, a São Paulo sporting icon, is being refurbished; the first phase is now complete, its architect Sol Camacho takes us on a tour
-
Tour 18 lesser-known modernist houses in South America
We swing by 18 modernist houses in South America; architectural writer and curator Adam Štěch leads the way in discovering these lesser-known gems, discussing the early 20th-century movement's ideas and principles
-
Year in review: the top 12 houses of 2024, picked by architecture director Ellie Stathaki
The top 12 houses of 2024 comprise our finest and most read residential posts of the year, compiled by Wallpaper* architecture & environment director Ellie Stathaki
-
Raw, refined and dynamic: A-Cold-Wall*’s new Shanghai store is a fresh take on the industrial look
A-Cold-Wall* has a new flagship store in Shanghai, designed by architecture practice Hesselbrand to highlight positive spatial and material tensions
-
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