December's festive season tends to come with an excuse to shop - for friends, family and ourselves. Gift buying is a true skill that might take a while to perfect, but one that once honed, is both fun and rewarding. Yet, even those better versed among us in its art sometimes need a little bit of inspiration; and it helps to remember that often the best present for somebody is one that the recipient is least expecting.

Wallpaper* Gift Guide: architecture & environment director Ellie Stathaki’s picks

The list below balances things and experiences, offering a blend where there's hopefully something for everyone - and I would certainly welcome every single thing on it. Whether you are looking for something for your days in or days out, something to eat or to learn, the perfect gift is out there; scroll down for some food for thought.

Gift Guide: ideas for 2024

Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 – renamed Studio mk27 at the turn of the century. The 72-year-old architect has since become synonymous with contemporary Brazilian chic, offering a sumptuous blend of raw, textured materials; clean, simple geometric forms; effortless functionality; vernacular design features; and a deep knowledge and appreciation of the rich, tropical modernist architecture legacy of his home country.

Step inside Marcio Kogan and Studio mk27’s architecture

This year marks the 15th anniversary of one of Kogan’s most celebrated residential works – Casa Paraty, the winner of Wallpaper* Best Private House 2010 – a mid-career highlight that propelled him to international stardom, but a mere hint of the numerous, striking designs to follow: homes such as Flag House in Canada, Canopy House in the Atlantic rainforest and Serge Cajfinger’s Bahia retreat, alongside the design store Micasa’s headquarters in São Paulo, projects for luxury Brazilian hospitality brand Fasano, the Patina Maldives Fari Islands resort, and several furniture collections for Minotti.

Yet it would be simplistic to reduce Kogan’s work to style and looks, for his buildings are profoundly experiential. Stepping into them means entering a magical world of motion, vision and sound, becoming the protagonist in a tailor-made, immaculately designed movie feature. Kogan’s background in film is perhaps a lesser-known aspect of his illustrious, thriving career but it has always been powerfully present in his mythology, informing heavily his architectural expression – space seen as a series of frames and feelings, as dreamy, layered, mesmerising and inspirational as the stillness and emotion of dappled light felt in the summer breeze.

To explore the architect's relationship with film and this deeply personal side of his work, Marcio Kogan's Wallpaper* October 2024 issue guest editor's section lifts the curtain and invites us to delve into his world. Meanwhile, to explore more of his architecture's greatest hits, scroll down...

Marcio Kogan and Studio MK27's greatest hits

Casa Paraty, Brazil (2009)

Our Wallpaper* Design Awards 2010 Best Private House winner, Paraty House, is located in Costa Verde, Brazil. This low-lying concrete beauty has it all: a location in a private cove on Brazil's Costa Verde, huge windows – removable on the lower of its two asymmetric volumes – and brise-soleils to tame the local sun. An ipe-wood deck leads seamlessly to an infinity pool and onto the beach beyond.

Cobogó House, Brazil (2018)

Close to Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo’s affluent Jardins neighbourhood, Cobogó House sits in a tranquil plot. Carefully chosen furniture and artworks add another layer of luxury and sophistication, but it is the rooftop that steals the show. In a project like this, one might expect the top floor – and its incredible views – to be allocated to the principal suite, or even a private office. In this case, the owner demanded to top the house with a private gym, a room typically tucked away in a basement. The result is a long, minimalist box, enclosed in glass behind an intricate screen that filters the daylight, creating an elegant pattern that slowly evolves over the course of the day. The screen recalls the cobogós (perforated wall compositions used as a brise-soleil) of north-eastern Brazil, hence the house’s name.

Micasa, Brazil (2018)

The artfully created box named Volume C is the second space Marcio Kogan and Studio mk27 created for furniture and design store Micasa, founded over 20 years ago by Houssein Jarouche and dealing in design from the emerging and the established. ‘It stands for good design, rather than just labels,’ says Kogan. Completing Micasa’s corner-site complex, Volume C is intended as a pavilion for new retail concepts, events and designers in residence. For Kogan, the leading light of contemporary Brazilian modernism and principal of São Paulo-based Studio mk27, Jarouche was an ideal client. ‘Good clients with an open mind allow for experimentation whatever the programme is,’ he says.

MK x Minotti – Quadrado (2018)

The fruitful collaboration between Kogan and furniture brand Minotti started in 2017, and ‘Quadrado’, the sofa system that launched the following year, is probably our favourite - a tough choice, given the several successful products of their, now, long-standing relationship. ‘Quadrado’, co-created with Studio mk27's interiors team, is a modern classic. A modular wooden-latticework platform system that blends straw, wood, stone and fabrics.

Sand house, Brazil (2019)

Frenchman Serge Cajfinger spotted Marcio Kogan’s Paraty House in an issue of Wallpaper* (W*131). He was so smitten, he told another magazine (it’s allowed) that he dreamed of having his own house built by the Brazilian architect some day. By chance, Kogan saw this article, and wondered, ‘Who is this guy?’ Cajfinger, 64, founded fashion brand Paule Ka in 1988. By the time he sold a majority stake, in 2011, the company had annual sales of around €40m. Cajfinger had spent the first years of his life in Brazil and now he wanted to retire there full time, to build a casa na areia – a ‘house on the sand’. When he finally contacted Kogan, in 2015, the architect’s first response was, ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’ Kogan advised him to buy a plot near Trancoso, a low-key, beautifully preserved seaside town in Bahia province.

Patina Maldives Fari Islands resort (2021)

Bringing his unique take on tropical modernism to the idyllic natural setting of the Maldives, Marcio Kogan and his Studio mk27, revealed the sustainable architecture contemporary retreat Patina Maldives, Fari Islands in 2021 – it was the Brazilian architecture studio's first-ever resort design. A landscape of cabins standing in the water raised on stilts, modest rectangular structures on land, lush green gardens, and plenty of open space to breathe, relax and commune with nature, this complex was conceived to push the boundaries of hospitality architecture and promote modest luxury.

Casa Azul, Brazil (2022)

Casa Azul may be one in a long line of residential masterpieces by Marcio Kogan and his partners at Studio mk27, but at the time of its creation, it was unique among its distinguished cohort for its site, a rare parcel within the protected Atlantic Forest that has shaped this project in every way. Located in Guarujá, Brazil, in the state of São Paulo, with the stunning Iporanga Beach and Atlantic Ocean a mere 500m away, Casa Azul is a study in sustainable architecture and development and contemporary Brazilian architecture.

Flag House, Canada (2023)

Another award winner, Flag House in Canada scooped Best Ski Retreat at the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards – while being the first project for Studio mk27 in a snowy climate. To design a home in the frosty natural expanses of Whistler, the resort town two hours north of Vancouver, was certainly a departure from its norm. Marcio Kogan has an anecdote to highlight just how much so. ‘We arrived on site and it was all white with the last snow of the season,’ he recalls of his and his team’s first site visit, in 2012.

Canopy House, Brazil (2024)

A holiday home designed so ‘you can always hear the birds’, Canopy House is located in the depths of the Atlantic Rainforest. The project was a commission from a client who wanted a private escape to recharge, connect with nature and meet up with family. Respecting its natural setting, the house's ground level has a relatively small footprint, mostly consisting of some service and storage areas, and an al fresco living room offering an immersive experience of the forest. On the first floor, five bedrooms and a TV room are placed in a row, and open onto a large balcony furnished with three comfortable hammocks. At the top, the main living space is half open to the elements, and half enclosed, yet fully connected to nature through swathes of glazing.

Fasano São Paulo Itaim, Brazil (2023)

Brand founder Gero Fasano’s clear vision and exquisite personal taste have informed, over the years, successful collaborations with Thiago Bernardes, Marcio Kogan, Philippe Stark, and Isay Weinfeld. 'He is a collaborator, not just a client. He brings big ideas and lots of small ideas too. All of them make the project better. He knows what he wants and is extremely dedicated to his customers, so he makes us better as designers,' Kogan said on the occasion of Fasano São Paulo Itaim's opening. It offers a contemporary take, using some of the same natural materials that have come to define his firm’s expansive body of work, and the Fasano aesthetic.

mk27.com

Much has changed since Wallpaper* first invited three vaunted individuals to guest-edit our October issue (that year, 2007, saw Hedi Slimane, Dieter Rams and Jeff Koons take up the challenge), not least the ease with which any creative can now communicate with a global audience – immediately, at pace, often on a whim. Yet our annual offer to three leading practitioners to organise their thoughts across our multiplicity of platforms remains a constant, driven by a mutually held curiosity around what develops, and a gnawing suspicion that hyper-personalised, algorithmically alert feeds aren’t the only way to convey a singular point of view. The interdisciplinary approach has paid dividends: by taking a different tack, each of this year’s editors has illuminated areas of their work, and life, in ways that are striking in their own right yet richly complement each other.

Guest editor: St. Vincent

St. Vincent, the alter ego of musician and songwriter Annie Clark, was just starting out when we debuted our annual Guest Editors’ issue in 2007. Since then, her shape-shifting as an artist has seen her move relentlessly between eras and genres, all the time playing with the carefully considered construct that she continues to recreate. It’s an entrancing journey, one that she has chosen to pick apart for us, all the while displaying the keenly critical eye that she brings to her work, as well as the contributions of others, notably the late, great Klaus Nomi and fellow artist Alex Da Corte, with whom she deconstructs the pitch-dark context of her eighth album, All Born Screaming.

Guest editor: Marcio Kogan

By contrast, Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan chose to zoom in on a specific moment in his life that influenced all that has followed, a cinematic approach to designing that he attributes to a visit to a São Paulo cinema in his youth to watch The Silence, the third of Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of films on the loss of religion and faith. As he tells writer Rainbow Nelson, ‘I discovered in that moment that something else exists in the world, real poetry ... It changed everything for me.’ A student’s pairing of images from that film and Kogan’s studio, MK27, has inspired the architect to create his own conversation between film and form, a mesmerising display of art and architecture in vivid concert.

Guest editor: Laila Gohar

Laila Gohar takes an even longer view, choosing to examine the social cohesion that is provided by the meals we eat – and the places that administer them – as a means of explaining her own drive to share and entertain. As our acting global design director Hugo Macdonald notes, ‘Her lens is not on the food that these places serve, as much as the feeling of hospitality they engender and the magic they inspire, which, she argues, is at the core of her mercurial practice.’ Obligingly, Gohar asked friends in the industry and her wider creative circle to relive their own perfect restaurant experience for a beautifully illustrated portmanteau of unimaginably inviting mealtimes. Gohar’s is a truly seductive course, in a wide-ranging bill of fare that you can continue to enjoy online at Wallpaper.com.

In the meantime, I would simply thank all three of our editors for coming on board – and for bringing so much of themselves to the banquet.

Bill Prince
Editor-in-Chief

The October 2024 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 5 September, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The script for celebrated Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan’s life was written from an early age. While there have been plenty of plot twists along the way, it was clear from early on that the two main protagonists would be architecture and film. Whether it’s synchronicity, or divine direction from on high, there are a handful of formative scenes that have shaped his journey throughout the years. Sometimes tragic, sometimes comedic, always fateful.

Into the world of Marcio Kogan

The inception moment happened in 1958 when a young boy enters stage right and gets a little too close to an unsecured edge of one of the buildings going up in his hometown, São Paulo. As our young hero walks towards the urban landscape lurching upwards, as if reaching for modernity, the boy’s father grabs his hand to protect him from falling into the building works below. ‘It was at that moment that I realised I’d be an architect,’ says Kogan, recalling fondly his father’s powerful presence on his younger self.

Marcio Kogan: into the mind of the architect

In his formative years, the young boy would watch in awe as his father, Aron Kogan, the talented engineer and architect, built and designed everything in the family modernist architecture home in São Paulo. As well as ‘the house of the future’ he shared with Marcio’s mother, Kogan Senior went on to draw up plans for Brazil’s tallest building, the 51-storey office, Mirante do Vale, in 1960, before he was killed tragically a year later. The needless loss would send his nine-year-old son’s life into darkness, a broody monochrome, real-life remake of JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. ‘Holden Caulfield was my name,’ he recalls of the angst he felt in his early teenage years. ‘Constantly wandering through the streets of São Paulo, always trying to escape school, where I was probably the worst student. In the 1960s, I lived in a black-and-white world, in deep and anguishing silence.’

It’s raining in downtown São Paulo when our hero, now aged 14, enters stage right once again. One day, skipping class, Kogan dives into the rundown cinema, Bijou, on Praça Roosevelt, to seek shelter from the elements. What he saw on that fateful day would transform his life forever. Screening at Bijou was the third of Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of films on the loss of religion and faith, The Silence.

‘I discovered in that moment that something else exists in the world, real poetry. This was a kind of epiphany,’ says Kogan about the profound impact that the chance meeting with the film’s protagonist, a perplexed ten-year-old boy, Johan, had on his life and later career. ‘It changed everything for me because I saw myself on the screen. That was the boy in the film. I identified with every element of Bergman’s film. The film in black and white, the anger, anguish, loneliness. Everything that I was feeling at that moment, or from the day my father died, until this point. When I left the movie, my life became technicolour again. This moment would be the first moment of the rest of my life.’

His father may have been responsible for his early fascination with the form and function of buildings and the possibilities of a career in architecture, but, kissed by the silver screen, it was the cinematographic creativity of filmmakers, first Bergman and later Federico Fellini, Jacques Tati, Jean-Luc Godard and Andy Warhol, that shaped the type of architect he would become.

Throughout his architectural studies at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, and in his early twenties, he split his time between his fledgling architecture practice and making short films with his friend and kindred spirit, Isay Weinfeld. The pair produced 13 short films together between 1978-1987. It was the financial failure of their only feature-length film, Fire and Passion, in 1988 that finally forced them to quit film and focus instead on creating homes with celluloid qualities. ‘The film was a disaster,’ says Kogan. ‘It was then that I decided to be an architect 24 hours a day.’ Cinema’s loss would be architecture’s gain.

Anyone who has seen or visited one of Kogan’s panoramic palaces, stayed in one of his scenic hotels or shopped in one of his illuminated stores, will have been struck by the horizontal, cinematographic narrative running through his work. As Wallpaper’s architecture & environment director, Ellie Stathaki, writes in her essay in Studio MK27’s recently released monograph of its work, published by Rizzoli, ‘The relationship between architecture and the moving image is at the heart of the practice’s visual storytelling and world-building. Seeing architecture not as a static element but as a part of a wider universe that encompasses movement, sound and light, Studio MK27 creates designs that become inherently multi-dimensional, spaces to be felt far beyond aesthetics and the perception of a structure as a still image.’

The architect himself believes his formative foray into the world of make-believe, of lights, cameras and action, has served him well when it comes to crafting a magical world of warm, minimalist architecture. ‘I see many coincidences between architecture and cinema,’ he says. ‘They are achievements that, telling a story, have a beginning, middle and end, and must create emotion. I observe the proportions of a project to a fault as if I were looking through the lens of a widescreen movie camera. It is a cinematographic frame.’

Furthermore, he encourages creative collaboration on all of Studio MK27’s projects and has, since the studio’s opening in 1978, sought to reproduce the teamwork and multidisciplinary perspectives required to make great movies, working with as many as 50 collaborators at a time. ‘The teamwork of filmmaking created a way of working in the office that’s different from what you find elsewhere,’ he says. ‘Everyone can work on a new project with me, from an intern to the directors. In the beginning, it was a kind of chaos, but now it works very well.’

All Studio MK27 works kick off with a brainstorming session that seeks to identify the ‘philosophy of the project’ and ends with credits rolling for everyone involved. Multiple teams are often formed to work on different solutions and later convene to compare and work together to select the best approach. In the conceptual stage, Kogan often immerses himself in a new project by throwing himself like a method actor into the role of a protagonist enjoying (or often not enjoying) the house in the future.

He has envisioned his work from the perspective of a bird complaining to the architect about the death of one of his flock, bees trampled underfoot by clumsy architects, or a cat exploring the liminal spaces created by his intelligent blurring of interior and exterior spaces. He often finds himself fielding imaginary complaints from angry clients as part of his method of troubleshooting his way to perfection. Many of these internal conversations and characters reveal insights that are incorporated into the work. Some have later featured in the short films the studio now produces to showcase its projects or to contextualise the sumptuous furniture lines produced for Italian manufacturer Minotti.

Almost 50 years after Bergman’s The Silence first brought colour back into the life of our 14-year-old hero, it returned once again to speak to Kogan as a 67-year-old professor in Milan. In 2018, he set a task to one of the workshops he produces with his long-time collaborator, Filippo Bricolo, and received a remarkable response from one student, Vladimir Boaghe, who reached deep into the soul of our young protagonist(s) – Johan and Marcio – to produce a book comparing cinema and architecture, and comparing The Silence and Marcio Kogan.

In the book, the student paired scenes from Bergman’s movie with elements of Kogan’s architecture to draw a creative arc through his remarkable body of work back to his chance discovery of the silver screen. ‘When you are a teacher or professor, sometimes you don’t just want to transfer your knowledge to the student but to learn something, too,’ says Kogan. ‘This is the most perfect example. It’s not so easy to give a very clever gift. This one I needed maybe one hour to understand the power of it. It’s like looking into yourself.’

While Johan is present in many of the images from Bergman’s masterpiece, it’s easy to imagine a young Kogan in the other frames, pointing his toy gun at the scenes and imaginary characters cast in his architecture. The subliminal pairings of the book led to a profound reflection by Kogan, sparking the creative inspiration for the pages he has curated for his guest editorship of Wallpaper*, as well as the desire to use filmmaking to present the studio’s work to the world.

Alongside images selected by Boaghe, Kogan and his team have chosen stills from short films and photography of Studio MK27’s works that tally with those of his other filmmaking heroes, Jacques Tati and Jean-Luc Godard. Together, they provide a revealing insight into half a century of carefully choreographed coincidences playing out between Studio MK27’s two leading actors – filmmaking and architecture.

Film and architecture: through the lens of Marcio Kogan

In his section of Wallpaper’s October 2024 issue, guest editor Marcio Kogan paired film stills from some of his favourite movies with photography from his own work, highlighting the subliminal connections in his way of working and the duality of film and architecture in his approach.

Screening 1: The Silence, directed by Ingmar Bergman (1963)

When, in a moment of unadulterated synchronicity, a 14-year-old Marcio Kogan discovered the moody black-and-white feature film, The Silence, directed by Ingmar Bergman, it changed everything for him. That fateful matinee transported the brooding teenager from a dark place, still grieving the loss of his father, to a technicolour world of art and poetry.

‘In the case of Bergman, it was my life at that moment,’ says the architect of his discovery of the Swedish director’s work and his immediate identification with one of the film’s main characters. ‘After I saw his movie, I belonged once again to humanity in that, for me, it gives me a sense of art, this is what I can see, that there is poetry. This is what attracts me to his films,’ says Kogan.

Released in 1963, The Silence tells the story of a ten-year-old boy, Johan, travelling through a fictional European country in the aftermath of the Second World War with his mother, Anna, and her sister, Ester. It is the last film in a trilogy by Bergman that the director says was his way of celebrating the ‘saving force of love’.

‘My basic concern in making the trilogy was to dramatise the all-importance of communication, of the capacity for feeling,’ he later said about the three films, Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence. ‘They are not concerned – as many critics have theorised – with God or his absence, but with the saving force of love. Most of the people in these films are dead, completely dead. They don’t know how to love or feel any emotions. They are lost because they can’t reach out to anyone outside of themselves.’ The work of the child actor that plays Johan – Carl Jörgen Lindström, who was born less than a year before the architect – spoke deeply to Kogan.

In a book gifted to the architect by his student Vladimir Boaghe in 2018, the latter explores the depth of the film’s impact on Kogan by pairing scenes from it with details from the architecture of Studio MK27. ‘How can such a state of mind be an inspiration for spaces so full of joy and life as the houses he designs?’ says Boaghe. ‘This analysis tries to highlight the strong connection between the projects and the framing, the lights and the gestures we can find in the movie, pointing out the evident quotes and the unconscious influences we can recognise in his works and in the way he shows them.’

The title of the publication, Hadiak, refers to the last word of the film uttered by the child protagonist, which in Bergman’s fictitious language translates to ‘soul’, something that Boaghe argues is a ‘constant presence in his projects and what really characterises Kogan’.

Screening 2: Playtime, directed by Jacques Tati (1967)

The comic escapades of Monsieur Hulot, played by Jacques Tati himself, revolve around struggles with technology and the daily problems of living in an increasingly complex world shaped by modern architecture. The French director’s films are among Kogan’s favourites, even though he disagrees strongly with Tati’s view that ‘geometrical lines do not produce likeable people’, the modernist Villa Arpel in Mon Oncle evoking fond memories of the house his father built for the family in São Paulo.

‘Sometimes I think Tati copied my father’s project. Both houses had a lot of electronics; my father decided at the same time to create a house of the future. It was a radical project, but not everything worked. My father decided to design everything, from the tables to the art and the architectural project itself. And, of course, this kind of thing, when you are created in this environment, it influences you a lot.’ And while there are references in his work to Villa Arpel, Kogan does everything he can to avoid the impracticality of dedication to superficial aesthetics and gadgets over the necessities of daily living.

Perhaps Kogan’s favourite film, Playtime, is another that pokes fun at the French modernist architects that shaped much of the built environment in the 20th century. For the 1967 release, Tati constructed a modernist Parisienne quarter as a movie set and shot it on 70mm film stock at great expense. While there are plenty of references to Tati’s architectural aesthetic, in Kogan’s work, once again, it’s the mutual sense of humour that brings him back to the film so frequently.

‘We shared a way of seeing the world through critical humour. In architectural thought, maybe we’re on opposite teams, but this doesn’t matter. What matters is life, as our architect Oscar Niemeyer said.’

Rewatching the opening night of the restaurant unravel in Playtime brings outboth his obsession and sense of fun, he admits. ‘There is one moment in the film that I think happened every week with me,’ he says. ‘It’s the scene where he’s visiting a family in the glass apartment where you can see what’s going on inside. He leaves the family, says goodbye, and 30 minutes later, when the owner of the apartment goes to walk the dog, he’s still stood there because he cannot find the button to open the door. This kind of thing always happened in São Paulo.’

Alas, for someone with such a strong sense of humour, there’s arguably not a lot of room for comedy in architecture. The only humorous piece he can think of in Studio MK27s body of work is the cement apparently dripping from the façade of his first project, the firm’s offices built in the Cerqueira César neighbourhood of São Paulo in 1978. ‘I mean, people want something serious when it comes to building their dream home,’ he says. ‘It’s very expensive to be funny.’

Screening 3: Le Mepris, directed by Jean-Luc Godard (1963)

Based on Alberto Moravia’s 1954 novel II Disprezzo (A Ghost at Noon), Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 movie, starring Jack Palance and Brigitte Bardot, is set against a remarkable Italian backdrop.

A terribly sad story of the loss of love, the film was made largely in the Capri landmark, Casa Malaparte.

The film has been interpreted as Godard’s own reflection on the death of cinema, the start of the end for a golden era in filmmaking.

‘This house is incredible. It wasn’t designed by an architect. It was designedby a poet,’ says Kogan.

‘I think it’s always the relationship with water, maybe with thesea. I think this and you have empty space, big windows and a stronger relationshipwith the view on this kind of film. It’s very much related to our project in Paraty.’

mk27.com

Marcio Kogan founded Studio MK27 in the late 1970s in São Paulo. Today, the architect and his partners Diana Radomysler, Renata Furlanetto, Suzana Glogowski, and Mariana Simas oversee the studio and a team of 50 architects working on residential and cultural buildings across Brazil and beyond. The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action is an essential overview of the studio's output. 

'The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action'

The book is the first monograph on the studio's work and presents a strong selection of recent projects, including many previously featured in Wallpaper*, along with an overview of the five key elements that go into Studio MK27’s approach. These are each helmed by a different writer, including architects Gabriel Kogan and Filippo Bricolo, Wallpaper’s own Ellie Stathaki, regular contributor Scott Mitchem and dezeen’s Amy Frearson. 

The sections, Inside Out, Narrative, Light, Body and Texture, take us through 27 projects in total, including the Bahia Beach House and Casa Redux in Brazil, the serene Flag House in Whistler and MK27’s first hotel project, Patina Maldives. 

The monograph includes a section on Studio MK27’s product and furniture design work – in particular its long-standing collaboration with Italian design brand Minotti, which has resulted in several notable products, like the ‘Quadrado’ outdoor furniture system, and the ‘Brasilia’ and ‘Superquadra’ collections from 2021.

Kogan’s interests in image and filmmaking help create a cinematic character in the work, especially in the relationship between structure and landscape. This is widescreen architecture, long and linear, a world viewed through a ratio of 1.37:1. There’s also a strong narrative thread running through each project, with rooms that unfold like a sequence of scenes as they reveal new views inside and out, with surfaces and textures responding to dynamic changes in natural light throughout the day.

With spectacular photography throughout by Fernando Guerra, André Scarpa and others, Lights, camera, action lives up to the epic billing implied by the title. Studio MK27 occupies a rare place in the global architectural discourse, for sure, with clients and projects many other studios would envy. Happily, the talents of the team make the most of these opportunities, and this rich blockbuster monograph is the result.

'The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action', $65, Rizzoli, RizzoliUSA.com, @RizzoliBooks. Also available from Amazon

StudioMK27.com.br

With the opening of his new luxury hotel, Fasano Itaim in São Paulo, things have come full circle for Gero Fasano. The launch comes nearly 20 years to the day after the opening of his first namesake boutique property in the city, located in the nearby neighborhood of Jardins on a street named for his grandfather Vittorio – the restaurateur who emigrated to Brazil from Milan in 1902 and started this culinary empire. 'When we opened the first Fasano Hotel in 2003, I never thought we would do a second hotel, much less ten, and certainly not another here in São Paulo. It happened that way because I have great partners,' said the 61-year-old Fasano. 

He refers to partners José Auriemo Neto and Constantino 'Coki' Regis Bittencourt. Auriemo Neto owns JHSF, one of Brazil's top real estate development firms, which took an ownership stake in the company in 2007 and has since made an art of selling luxury condominiums branded together with Fasano hotel projects. 'JHSF has been a great partner, but none of this would have been possible without Coki,' said the patriarch of this restaurant company-cum-five-star hotel brand.

Inside the newly opened Fasano Itaim in São Paulo

Bittencourt brought the company its second hotel project in Rio de Janeiro, which opened in 2007, and he joined the company as a partner after that, leading hotel development efforts ever since. Fasano added: 'Because of him, we have done what none of the big hotel companies could do here in Brazil. We’ll keep going, but we will stay true to ourselves.'

Indeed, the brand’s expansion is impressive, opening in some of the most coveted, highest barrier-to-entry markets in Brazil and beyond, such as Trancoso, Brazil, Punta del Este, Uruguay, and New York City. The Fasano portfolio now totals ten hotels across the Americas, with the 11th opening next year in Miami Beach. In this age of industry consolidation, it is one of few luxury boutique brands that remain independent.

Perhaps more impressive to its dedicated clientele is its ability to consistently replicate its unique take on old-world service and the gastronomic excellence that built the brand. But globally, the group may be more well-known for its incredible design. Their rich, warm sensibility has also been a constant, building on a Brazilian tradition of simple, sensual modernism – thanks to some of the world’s most celebrated architects.

Gero Fasano’s clear vision for the brand and exquisite personal taste have informed successful collaborations with Thiago Bernardes, Marcio Kogan, Philippe Stark, and Isay Weinfeld. And the leader’s most impressive skill may be managing these design geniuses in service of his brand. 'He is a collaborator, not just a client. He brings big ideas and lots of small ideas too. All of them make the project better. He knows what he wants and is extremely dedicated to his customers, so he makes us better as designers,' said Kogan.

With this latest Fasano project, official name Fasano São Paulo Itaim, Marcio Kogan has also come full circle, creating yet another seminal project – which has become routine for his impressive Studio MK27 – after working on the original Fasano Hotel in Jardins with his then-partner Isay Weinfeld. His challenge in Itaim was to recapture the brand’s essence all over again, different but the same, two decades later and not far from the first effort. He succeeded brilliantly on a more contemporary take than the first project and using some of the same natural materials that have come to define his firm’s expansive body of work, and the Fasano aesthetic. 

The spaces are clad with Brazilian walnut, or freijó wood, and the stone floors are made of Brazilian basalto, or basalt, a type of lava rock – the challenging acoustics softened with expansive areas of rugs, and an expertly curated mix of upholstered furniture and lighting that steals the show in the 107 rooms and public areas. Kogan’s own ‘Daiki’ chair and ‘Brasilia’ sofa for Minotti are featured prominently in the lobby – a long, seamless extension of the stunning bar and centrepiece Gero Restaurant, always buzzing with regulars. A gallery wall of old photos celebrating the brand’s origin story is an irresistible conversation piece for passersby and a clear signal to the uninitiated that this isn’t just another luxury hotel.

It’s a seductive and inviting space that encourages lounging day and night, always against the backdrop of the stunning tropical foliage that highlights the exterior of the building, just outside the long run of floor-to-ceiling glazing and sheer curtains. If there is one significant conceptual difference between the two São Paulo hotels, it’s transparency. The original is incredibly private, a sanctuary for guests, while the new property embraces the city, providing cinematic views at every opportunity.

On the guestroom floors, Kogan’s hallways feature wood wall panels with flush room doors and clandestine service closets that offer a striking preview of the guest experience to come. The rooms are as warm and cosy as the public spaces, a gorgeous mash-up of Brazilian design, new and old, from Sergio Rodrigues’ midcentury classic ‘Vronka’ chair to contemporary gems by Jadar Almeida, including his ‘Matriz’ sofa, ‘Memory’ floor lamps, and ‘Docc’ and ‘Jardim’ table lamps. The luxurious yet stylish design, together with the brand’s little touches, like handwritten notes and the elegantly presented fresh Brazilian fruit plate, pitchers of hand-squeezed juices, and selection of patisseries that await every guest, make a stay here feel like home – likely better than home.

The ample bathrooms are a hallmark of the Fasano brand. They feature long wall-mounted vanities, oversized walk-in showers, and large soaking tubs by Lure Surface. Deca wash-lets provide ultimate convenience, and the copper hardware by Docol brings subtle bling to the serene palette, featuring downlit, scored basalt stone wall finishes, their texture in beautiful dialogue with the matching flat lava stone flooring. A massive freijó wood sliding door provides privacy or opens fully, adding to the loft-like feel of these generous rooms.

Local architecture firm Aflalo/Gasperini Architects designed the stunning two-tower complex, but collaboration on the building’s base and its facade resulted in the long, horizontal volumes of poured-in-place concrete often seen in Studio MK27 projects – accented with brick, wood, and almost otherworldly landscaping. The work of Aflalo Gasperini and Marcio Kogan - together with his business partner Diana Radomysler - is seamlessly integrated, evident from within the structure, where the rectangular windows put the city front and centre for every room and amenity space. Their effect is even more dramatic and almost vertigo-inducing while running on the gym’s treadmills, high up on the 19th floor.

Still, the most breathtaking view of this expansive megalopolis is from the rooftop pool and bar, 21 storeys atop the hotel tower. Complete with sauna spaces, outdoor showers, and dedicated service staff, the long, slender pool area allows for both morning lap swimming by more motivated guests and midday sunbathing and lazy lunching by the more indulgent. At night, the adjacent lounge transforms into the city’s newest and most exclusive rooftop bar – making the evening cityscape an even more privileged view. It's a beautiful, seemingly endless vista that makes one wonder how any group could leave such a lasting legacy on a city so vast, but the family Fasano certainly has.  

fasano.com.br 

studiomk27.com.br 

Designing Flag House was a welcome challenge for Studio MK27. The São Paulo-based practice is renowned for its well-honed, contemporary take on Brazilian modernist architecture and the tropical villa typology – most of its work to-date has been in hot climes. To design a home in the frosty natural expanses of Whistler, the resort town two hours north of Vancouver, was certainly a departure from its norm. Founder Marcio Kogan has an anecdote to highlight just how much so. ‘We arrived on site and it was all white with the last snow of the season,’ he recalls of his and his team’s first site visit, in 2012. ‘We started climbing the plot’s steep angle, through the snow, and we were warned by our hosts to follow in their footsteps. All of a sudden, my colleagues realised I had completely disappeared. I had wandered off and fallen in a hole, which was covered up in the thick snow! I had no idea this could happen.’ Luckily, nobody was hurt and the story is recounted fondly and lightheartedly, but it comes to show, Kogan explains, just how inexperienced they were with the climate and its circumstances.  

The project is a vacation home for a private client, who spends most of their time in Vancouver, and was after a retreat – both for escaping the city with their family of four, and for hosting guests and entertaining. The client chose Kogan and his team, having seen some of the studio’s spectacular residential work in Brazil – Casa Azul is among the most recent. The architect’s instinct for creating homes that feel at one with their environment is a stand-out recurring feature in the practice’s portfolio – and despite his unfamiliarity with Whistler’s temperatures, Kogan knew this was something he could deliver here too. ‘I wanted to create the same connection between indoor and outdoor here, as I do in warmer climates,’ he says. ‘Regardless of the geographic location, the design process is the same.’

Flag House by studio MK27

Inspired by the weather at Whistler (‘It changes every five minutes!’ says architect Suzana Glogowski, who co-led the building design with Kogan, ‘and the landscape changes with it.’), the team decided to work with a big glass box. This way, they could open up the interiors to the surrounding nature and invite the outside in. At the same time, the house’s volume would appear weightless, as if floating above the ground,’ says Kogan. The structure was positioned in its angled plot so as to make the most of the views, and was designed across three levels; a semi-sunken lower ground, which contains the garage and a cellar; a first floor containing a guest bedroom and the pedestrian entrance, including a pool deck; and a grand piano nobile, which is wrapped in swathes of glass and becomes the primary living space.  

Due to its clever design and embedding into the hill, Flag House feels like a single storey home – but it is in fact a huge cantilever. The surroundings are constantly reflected on its façade, bringing a layer of nature into the indoors at every turn. Timber cladding inside helps to that effect. ‘It was also important to us for the building to feel at home in its place,’ says Kogan. ‘There is a mix of modernism with a modern log cabin feeling, so it feels very Whistler.’ To emphasise further the connection between building and land, the team worked with natural materials such as Dinesen oak, and local Ocean Pearl Flagstone, which clad large parts of the home, in combination with its concrete base and metal upper frame.

The interiors were also designed by the studio, headed by Diana Radomysler and Pedro Ribeiro, who looked after both bespoke furniture and fittings, and the constellation of furnishings, which is predominantly a mix of modernist and contemporary pieces, painstakingly collected from stores and auctions over a two-year period. The studio’s own designs, such as an Agape bathtub, also appear inside. The home is strategically minimalist, furnished for comfort and to work with its role as a vessel for enjoying the landscape. Radomysler describes it as ‘a frame for nature’. 

One of the project’s unsung heroes is its contractor, Linden Projects founder (and local ice hockey celebrity) Jamie Linden, a close friend of the client who project-managed and delivered the building to the highest specifications. The MK27 team unanimously agrees that even though much of Flag House was built from a distance (they worked with local architects Evoke International Design on the ground), the level of detail is extremely high and it felt like a much smoother process than many of their local projects. ‘He was simply fantastic,’ says Glogowski, ‘and a real expert in building in the region’s climate. The flag stone on the floors is normally hand cut, but here they cut it in laser and it’s the perfect puzzle, each piece is unique and numbered, no two pieces are the same.’ As a result, the home is perfectly in sync with its surroundings, and well-thought-out on all levels – from construction techniques and engineering systems, such as insulation and waterproofing, to functionality and style. ‘The family can leave and return to the house on skis, and slide straight in,’ Glogowski says. ‘The house is perfectly prepared for anything, connected to activities close to nature.’ And judging by the bear the client has reported frequenting the poolside terrace, it seems nature has embraced it back. 

 studiomk27.com.br 

The winners of the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023 are revealed in the February 2023 issue, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Bringing his unique take on tropical modernism to the idyllic natural setting of the Fari Islands in the Maldives, Marcio Kogan and his studio, MK27, have revealed their latest design – the sustainable contemporary retreat Patina Maldives, Fari Islands, the Brazilian architecture studio's first ever resort design. A landscape of cabins standing in the water raised on stilts, modest rectangular structures on land, lush green gardens, and plenty of open space to breathe, relax and commune with nature, this complex was conceived to push the boundaries of hospitality architecture and promote modest luxury. 

At first glance, Patina seems to combine everything the typical nature-inspired island escape would offer – green surroundings, crystal clear blue seas, contemporary architecture and a rich list of amenities for guests. Yet this is a hotel with more to it, as owners Capella Hotel Group and the Brazilian architect joined forces to create an extraordinary escapethat has a positive impact on its people and place. 

The project’s identity, architecturally led by Kogan and Renata Furlanetto, with interiors by studio MK27’s Diana Radomysler and Pedro Ribeiro, was born out of several, informal yet deep discussions between the architects and the client's head of design and hospitality, Evan Kwee. ‘In every meeting we would talk more about food, music, art, feelings rather than just architecture. The brief was always open and inspiring,’ Kogan recalls. ‘A privilege!'

The hotel brand also felt Kogan was the perfect fit. ‘I have always respected his aesthetic,’ says Kwee. ‘He is able to marry the super precise contemporary and clean architecture but he manages to soften it with textured and tactile materials in the interior. Also, he’s never done a hotel before. We weren't creating a hotel block, we wanted to create a set of smaller structures, and we appreciated the mindset of somebody who designs amazing homes.’ 

While the brief encouraged the restectful blend of nature and architecture, the Maldives’ striking environment effortlessly provided heaps of inspiration for the design team. Add to this Kogan’s passion and experience with filmmaking, and what you get is a truly cinematic experience with framed views, dreamy landscapes and carefully selected materials and atmospheres to suit each function in the hotel. The structures are comfortably spread across a generous campus and all have their own, distinct identity, at the same time clearly belonging to the same family, and remaining low-key, allowing the nature to take centre stage. Expert designs by VDLA - Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture helped weave everything in seamlessly.  

‘Along the Maldivan sand, skies and ocean, all architecture can do is humbly filter the light, frame the views, create different narratives as one strolls around the magnificent surroundings,’ Kogan explains. ‘We were able to produce architecture that is much less important than nature. Contemporary, classic and elegant. It is like the hotel does not exist in this place. Everything disappears. Life, people and nature are more important than architecture.’ 

The local island vernacular also informed the humble, yet highly refined architecture, which is mostly built in wood and other natural materials, put together by expert craftsmen of the region. ‘The vernacular design in the Maldives is basically fisherman villages spread among the islands, that sometimes one can’t even notice from the sea,’ says Furlanetto. ‘Coral stone for walls, and wood for roof structures were some of the natural materials available to create an architecture that is fully integrated with nature. That was our biggest inspiration, to respect nature and allow the guests to enjoy such a special place.'

Sustainable strategies enrich the architectural concept, developed hand in hand with the masterplan and individual architectures. Reducing waste in the construction process, prefabrication using cross-laminated timber elements, and organic fabrics were part of the plan. The architects stress that their aim was to make the most of what was already there, reinforcing a lifestyle that seamlessly merges indoors and outdoors and feels truly of its place. ‘We simply recreated a relationship between humans and nature that has existed for thousands of years,’ says Radomysler.

Solar panels for energy needs; beach clean-ups; a dedicated venue for children, where kids can turn recycled ocean plastic into models using 3D-printing and laser-cutting technology; a range of charitable programmes to support local communities that have been heavily impacted by climate change; and a culinary offering that promotes plant-based dining and a head-to-tail, zero-waste approach are just a few of the relevant initiatives on site. There is even an on-island organic permaculture garden. Add to that the picture-perfect views, clear waters and tropical setting, and this is a retreat that ensures a stay that has a positive impact to both guests and locals. 

There are places to find peace, and others to party; over 100 sparsely built private rooms and villas, juxtaposed by bustling areas for socialising. As for Kogan’s favourite spot? ‘The view of the framed sky at the very centre of the James Turrell pavilion. The delicate presence of a tiny flower stand, as you enter the village. A low chair under a tree shadow, overlooking the most beautiful bright shade of blue water in the world, listening to Chet Baker. Can it get any better?’ he smiles

INFORMATION

studiomk27.com.br

patinahotels.com

It’s not unthinkable that, after a long and complex collaboration between one of the world’s most renowned architects and his industry-leading client, one might use the F-word to characterise the other. But when Marcio Kogan and Roberto Minotti describe each other as ‘family’, it’s still a bit surprising. Perhaps more surprising is that this genuine warmth extends across their teams – even after their most recent collaboration, a multifaceted, multinational effort, delivered on schedule in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.

The lovefest is likely a reflection of their shared philosophy on the workplace. ‘I saved all of my money early in my career so I could invest in creating the best environment possible in my office,’ said Kogan. ‘It was very calculated. Everything I do is with pleasure. I love the people that work in my offce and they love to work here. The word ‘family’ is overused, but in this case it’s accurate. Everybody is a friend. I care about them all. It’s the same with clients. I don’t work with anyone who I don’t consider a friend. Everything must be done with pleasure.’

Of course, Minotti is a family business, founded by Alberto Minotti in 1948 and now run by his sons Roberto and Renato, together with the third generation: Alessandro, Alessio, Susanna and Leonardo. They have dozens of employees whose tenures go back decades, in an industry tradition that is uniquely Italian, and a network of international collaborators whom they consider extended family. ‘We only work with people we have a good connection with, that’s the most important thing. We have to have a good synergy with the people we are collaborating with, their culture, their passion for this job we share,’ says Roberto.

Like all healthy relationships, this one with Kogan has grown organically over time. It started when Roberto requested a meeting while he was in São Paulo, solely out of admiration for Kogan’s work. A friendship quickly began, but it would be four years before Kogan would receive his first Minotti commission: the ‘Quadrado’, a modular outdoor seating collection inspired by the classic teak duckboard used in yacht construction (see W*235). Released in 2018, it became a runaway bestseller – which tends to strengthen a friendship.

For his contribution to Minotti’s 2020 collection, Kogan had several ideas for indoor furniture in mind, but Roberto requested that he design pieces for both indoor and outdoor use – a brief driven in part by Kogan’s incredible residential projects in and around São Paulo. ‘It’s hard to tell where the indoors ends and the outdoors begins. This is a common theme in our work. Everything can be open because the climate is so agreeable,’ says Kogan. Celebrated in the pages of Wallpaper*, in coffee table books and across social media, his residences are coveted by design enthusiasts the world over – including Roberto, a trained architect who first fell in love with the idea of indoor/outdoor living as a student, learning about the midcentury masterpieces of Richard Neutra and John Lautner. The brief was also driven by Minotti’s ambitious expansion within the outdoor furniture market, to be supported by a new factory currently under construction near its HQ in Meda, Italy.The heart of the offering is the ‘Daiki’ chair series, inspired by the lobby of the original Hotel Okura Tokyo.

Kogan has travelled to the Japanese capital just after Christmas for the past six years running. ‘All I do is walk. I never have a plan. I don’t want to do anything but walk and discover the city and experience this amazing culture, which is the exact opposite of Brazil in so many ways. I think I took 2,000 pictures on my first trip. I was fascinated. Every morning, the only touristic plan we had was to go to the Nezu Museum, which was a 90-minute walk from our hotel. On our way, we stopped at a second-hand shop, then a ceramics studio, a café, a bookstore. We never made it. And that was fine with me,’ recalls Kogan.

It was on one of these endless strolls that he came across the Hotel Okura, its midcentury lobby originally designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi in 1962 and demolished in 2015 despite protests by modern preservationists. ‘I loved the atmosphere there. It was a masterpiece of interior design, very elegant, serene, timeless,’ said Kogan. ‘When I was there, I decided to make a tribute to this hotel and thought that could be a piece of furniture.’ Kogan pitched his idea in an unconventional way. ‘Minotti never imagined I would make a movie,’ he says, a filmmaker at heart. It took only two minutes, 57 seconds for the shock to wear off and for his elegant, passionate film about the project to win approval. ‘It was poetic. I loved it. It was an original way to tell the story of a project. I thought it was in line with Marcio’s spirit; I just loved it,’ says Roberto.

The resulting ‘Daiki’ series lives up to its lofty genesis, a simple, perfectly proportioned design concept that, like the original Hotel Okura lobby, is at once classic and modern. It’s the perfect result for Minotti, a brand itself built on walking the fine line between tradition and innovation. ‘Daiki’ is a blend of both, and includes an indoor armchair, with a shell in either Bolivian rosewood or ash veneer, and an outdoor armchair and dining chair. Teak is used for the outdoor versions, which allow for continuity with interior spaces featuring ‘Daiki’ or other Minotti pieces – a strategic priority and personal preference for Roberto. With the series, Kogan recalls the same sense of timelessness that made Taniguchi’s interiors worth fighting for.

Ultimately, Kogan contributed two additional series, the ‘Linha’ tables and ‘Boteco’ sideboards, to Minotti’s extensive 2020 collection – which also includes designs by a global collection of designers, among them Nendo, GamFratesi, Christophe Delcourt and the company’s own art director Rodolfo Dordoni. In total, there are around 40 original products, each with variations that translate to over 400 new items.

Creating the context within which Minotti products are presented each year is a critical part of the company’s process, and the Covid-19 crisis only added pressure and complexity to an already ambitious release. Roberto, ever the architect, designed a virtual modernist retreat, the Seaview Resort and Lodges, a fictitious five-star resort that gracefully spills down a mountainside in the city of Carmel-bythe- Sea, California. Here, the influence of those famous residences by Kogan, Neutra and Lautner come to ‘life’. The hotel’s public areas comprise a tiered series of lobby space, restaurants and poolside cocktail bars, all with spectacular ocean views and ‘invisible’ boundaries between them and their generous terraces. It’s the perfect way to present the breadth and depth of the new collection in situ.

Ironically, this virtual resort and its accompanying launch video – which includes Kogan’s short film – was a more concrete way to experience the 2020 collection, free from the pandemonium of furniture fairs and allowing for deeper understanding of the products’ backstory. Global lockdowns forced the cancellation of Milan’s Salone del Mobile, where Minotti’s new collections would otherwise have been shown, but a temporary escape to an idyllic, if only imagined, resort in California was more than welcome. The project is so well done, it raises the question, does Minotti have plans to open a luxury hotel? ‘We are focused on making furniture, but we never say never.’

INFORMATION

minotti.com

As originally featured in the November 2020 Issue of Wallpaper

A decade ago, the Frenchman Serge Cajfinger spotted Marcio Kogan’s Paraty House in an issue of Wallpaper* (W*131). He was so smitten, he told another magazine (it’s allowed) that he dreamed of having his own house built by the Brazilian architect some day. By chance, Kogan saw this article, and wondered, ‘Who is this guy?’

Cajfinger, 64, founded fashion brand Paule Ka in 1988. By the time he sold a majority stake, in 2011, the company had annual sales of around €40m. Cajfinger had spent the first years of his life in Brazil and now he wanted to retire there full time, to build a casa na areia – a ‘house on the sand’. When he finally contacted Kogan, in 2015, the architect’s first response was, ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

Kogan advised him to buy a plot near Trancoso, a low-key, beautifully preserved seaside town in Bahia province, home to a mix of locals and international jet-setters. There was very little beachfront land for sale, but Cajfinger got lucky and learned that a friend of a friend was selling a 6,427 sq m plot by the sea. He sold his Quai Voltaire apartment in Paris and bought it.

He and Kogan are a perfect pair, sharing the same passion for 1950s and 1960s modernism. The architects of Studio MK27, Kogan’s firm, work in close collaboration with clients on every project. And in this spirit, the team, led by architects Marcio Tanaka and Beatriz Meyer, extended to include Cajfinger, who considers himself a frustrated architect. ‘I was very directive,’ he says. ‘I knew what I wanted and didn’t want.’

Kogan adds, ‘He’s a very sophisticated guy. A dream client. He’s probably more perfectionist than we are – that’s very difficult.’

The architects distributed the living areas throughout five separate concrete blocks, a reference to the small cottages around Bahia. For a seamless connection between indoors and out, the boxes are grouped beneath a porous structure, a pergola made of eucalyptus sticks on a glue-laminated timber frame. ‘If it’s raining,’ says Kogan, ‘you take your umbrella to go to another part of the house.’

The house is raised 40cm off the ground, to enhance ventilation and the view while keeping snakes and lizards out. Folding wooden shutters control light, air flow and privacy. A permanent breeze provides natural ventilation, while collected rainwater is used to irrigate the garden. By law, the house had to be built at least 60m from the water and 10m from the road. It is long and narrow, so that all the rooms except the bathrooms face the sea. The actual living area occupies 328 sq m (including four guest bedrooms), while the pergola expands the surface area to 881 sq m.

Kogan, an erstwhile movie director, always brings his cinematic approach to architecture, with houses that tend to be horizontal – or as he says, ‘widescreen’. In this case, it is ‘very wide’. The pergola also adds drama, filtering the sunlight and casting shadows in graphic lines that change throughout the day.

Cajfinger showed up in Brazil with an exceptional collection of French art and mid-20th-century objects, including Charlotte Perriand chairs in wood and straw, Isamu Noguchi paper lamps, biomorphic steel sculptures by French artist Philippe Hiquily, and a Roger Capron dining table covered with ceramic tiles in a sea-god theme. Studio MK27 interior architect Diana Radomysler says that Cajfinger’s collection drove the design, and made her job very easy. Local artisans added touches such as headboards and benches crafted of solid brauna wood.

The garden is another work of art, designed by Isabel Duprat, a disciple of the renowned Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. It is lush and tropical, with palm trees, pineapple plants, and winding sandy paths leading to the ocean. Duprat did not remove a single tree – in fact, 100 more were planted, and some seem to burst through the pergola roof. The garden’s organic curves extend to the swimming pool, and contrast with the rigorous geometry of the house. The effect reminds Cajfinger of glamorous images from the 1950s by photographer Slim Aarons.

The man who made his fortune designing clothing now spends his days barefoot and in shorts. He has never been happier. ‘It is rare to realise one’s dreams,’ Cajfinger says. ‘This is the house of my dreams.’

INFORMATION
A version of this article originally featured in the September 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*246)

studiomk27.com.br

pauleka.com

The rooftop gym is the crowning glory of a private house and is clad in a screen that echoes the perforated wall compositions of north-eastern Brazil. These latticework brick façades date back to the 1920s, and became a defining characteristic of the newly created capital of Brasilia in the 1960s.

Close to Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo’s affluent Jardins neighbourhood, Cobogó House sits in a tranquil plot. Designed by celebrated local architect Marcio Kogan, the house features his signature long, low yet dramatic volumes and tastefully appointed rich, warm materials that add sensuality to what could have been a cold study in modernism. Carefully chosen furniture and artworks add another layer of luxury and sophistication, but it is the rooftop that steals the show. Each of Kogan’s works has a distinguishing element, and Cobogó is no exception.

In a project like this, one might expect the top floor – and its incredible views – to be allocated to the master suite, or even a private office. In this case, the owner demanded to top the house with a private gym, a room typically tucked away in a basement. The result is a long, minimal box, enclosed in glass behind an intricate screen that filters the daylight, creating an elegant pattern that slowly evolves of the course of the day.

The panels surrounding the rooftop gym diffuse light, creating elegant patterns that evolve during the day – and can be watched whilst resting on a lounge chair by Richard Schultz.

If the screen panels look familiar, they should. The pattern is a classic, designed for interior application by the Austrian-born, Connecticut-based sculptor Erwin Hauer in the 1950s, and it recently featured as a prominent part of the lobby at New York’s Standard Hotel. Kogan spent more than a year with Hauer and his design partner Enrique Rosado to adapt the panels, originally fabricated in gypsum, for exposure to the elements. In the end, the pattern was achieved with pour-formed concrete, painted white. The screen recalls the cobogós (perforated wall compositions used as a brise-soleil) of north-eastern Brazil, hence the house’s name. The ornate hollowed bricks diffuse light while allowing ventilation, making them perfect for the climate.

The space sports a luxurious bathing area with two saunas.

The gym features everything from a state-of-the-art surround sound system to a luxurious bathing and changing area with two saunas. On the hi-tech, impact-resistant, vinyl-tiled floor sits a collection of Life Fitness machines, adding sporty finesse to an environment peppered with iconic pieces of furniture. A chaise longue by Richard Schultz or a ‘Slow’ chair by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec ensure there will always be a stylist place to rest during a difficult training session. On the terrace, Paola Lenti’s lounge chairs are best enjoyed when the work out is complete.

As private gyms go, it is hard to match this facility’s lofty location and feel. The gym’s centre-stage position and simple yet memorable light effect produce a training experience to remember – just enough to get anyone in shape for the nearest Brazilian beach. §

As originally featured in the June 2012 issue of Wallpaper* (W*159)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Marcio Kogan website

Floating among the dense tree canopy of São Paulo’s leafy Jardins suburb is architect Marcio Kogan’s latest offering, an artfully created box named Volume C. It is the second space the Brazilian architect has created for furniture and design store Micasa, founded over 20 years ago by Houssein Jarouche and dealing in design from the emerging and the established. ‘It stands for good design, rather than just labels,’ says Kogan.

Completing Micasa’s corner-site complex, Volume C is intended as a pavilion for new retail concepts, events and designers in residence. For Kogan, the leading light of contemporary Brazilian modernism and principal of São Paulo-based Studio MK27, Jarouche was an ideal client. ‘Good clients with an open mind allow for experimentation whatever the programme is,’ he says.

Kogan wanted this project to signal a significant move forward from his 2007 Volume B, a heavy concrete box inspired by the city’s brutalist architecture, and the original Volume A, an industrial metal-and-glass box designed by French-Brazilian studio Triptyque. Thus, Volume C blends new timber construction techniques with influences from Japan in a lightweight wood-framed structure that features two wide openings. It’s a 15m by 15m void designed to be filled with ideas, people – and even a refurbished 1960s Airstream caravan, which will be parked inside from time to time.

Kogan chose wood to bring warmth to the space, but also to put to use some of the studio’s research into sustainable timber construction. ‘The wooden structure with detailed joinery points to a more sustainable and simple way of building,’ he says. ‘All pieces were assembled with ease, minimising waste and maintaining a low carbon footprint.’ So while Volume C showcases the clean lines and airy spaces of modernism, it looks firmly towards the future, moving away from the genre’s traditional heavy concrete and glass and allowing it to become more versatile – not to mention welcoming and approachable.

A structure of glued laminated timber frames and steel rods supports an outer skin of white metal-plate and polycarbonate panels. Kogan says the translucent sheets bring a ‘more mysterious sort of transparency’ to the volume and allow a tempered, even spread of daylight into the 7.5m-high space from above, as well as the unexpected ‘kinetic spectacle’ of shadows from the surrounding trees.

When the sun sets, Volume C marks its presence by becoming a glowing Japanese lantern illuminated from within by an Isamu Noguchi pendant lamp that hangs centrally, emphasising the space’s symmetry. The dynamic lightness of the structure is reminiscent of Sou Fujimoto’s airy framed structures or Kazuyo Sejima’s minimalist cuboids – all enlivened by São Paulo’s context of dense flora, impromptu street life and mild evenings. ‘In my opinion, contemporary Japanese architecture finds a common ground in Brazilian modernism,’ says Kogan. ‘I have a strong identification with its search for simplicity and emotion’. For the past five years, he says, he has been returning to Tokyo annually for a ‘two-week immersion’.

Volume C is a breath of fresh air, a structure where modernism is infused with culture, experimentation and feeling. The principles of modernism, ‘a rational and humanistic architecture’, are ‘still the ethical and aesthetic guidelines for contemporary architecture’, says Kogan – but the other ingredients can be up to you.

As originally featured in the June 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*231)

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Studio MK27 website and the Micasa website

Studio MK27’s new housing scheme in Spain is substantial enough to pass for a lifetime’s architectural output for a less fortunate firm. Set in the western Madrid suburb of Somosaguas, the project covers more than a third of a hectare and comprises 21 private houses, arranged as a series of interlocking public and private spaces.

Marcio Kogan and Suzana Glogowski of Studio MK27 in São Paulo worked closely with the developer, builder and co-architect of the project, Enrique López of local operation Caledonian. For the Brazilians, the project was a first. ‘We’d retro-fitted interiors in Spain and Portugal, but this was our first new build in Europe,’ explains director Mariana Simas.

The job had its origins in Spain’s serious financial depression at the tail-end of the Noughties. ‘The client liked our projects,’ Kogan recalls, ‘and one day he called to say that he had an entire block near Madrid that he wanted to develop. Yet he also chose us for a particular economic reason. “In Brazil, you have a lot of experience of designing against crisis,” he told me.

That’s what he wanted to do in Spain. Design against crisis.’ The studio’s first proposal wasn’t met with much enthusiasm, though. ‘We suggested purchasers buy 70 sq m spaces, and then add another 70 to 150 sq m at a later date,’ recalls project architect Glogowski. ‘He refused that instantly,’ Kogan says cheerfully, ‘asking, “How can I sell something that doesn’t exist?”’ ‘We tried another approach,’ Glogowski continues, creating ‘a community that would be like an old medieval city – a pueblo – without cars’.

Modularity was key to this massive site. The masterplan was changed, changed and changed again as the number of houses on the site shrank according to the market’s desires for larger properties. The architects initially offered eight individual housing designs, but interested buyers clearly preferred three, ranging in size from around 80 to 200 sq m.

Planned using a grid of 1.25m squares, the site combines private terrace spaces with a series of winding pathways and small plazas. From above, it’s a jigsaw of almost unthinkable complexity. ‘It’s like Tetris,’ Kogan jokes. ‘Each house is actually unique, although similar, because we came up with a system that allowed variations. There is also a unity of materials.’

‘Although it’s a bit industrial-looking,’ Glogowski adds, ‘we have made it intentionally scrambled – you don’t know where one house ends and another begins.’

Outside, brilliant white walls and wooden walkways and doors contrast with the cascades of planting. The latter was overseen by Isabel Duprat, a former friend and collaborator of the legendary Roberto Burle Marx, undertaking her first European commission. Beds of wild flowers, ground-hugging shrubs and mature trees are set among the asymmetrically arranged decking, which rises and falls over five levels.

It certainly fulfils the original MK27 brief of creating an instant village, something that appears to have emerged organically over time. However, beneath this tranquil, pedestrian-only realm – and making all the bucolic, ground-level splendour possible – is a rigorously designed concrete underworld, containing residents’ car-parking, basement space and direct, discreet access to the houses.

López wasn’t just the client, but also the executive architect and the contractor. ‘The quality of construction is absolutely high-end,’ says Kogan. ‘It’s rare to have a spec house of this quality.’

‘He was even more demanding than us,’ Simas recalls. Studio MK27 is working on other similar projects for Caledonian in Spain, as well as a spec office building. Shared design values have certainly helped the process in Somosaguas, where the community has been tight-knit from the outset, with a strong creative vibe among the new owners, which include other architects.

Kogan and Glogowski visited the site every few months throughout the two-year build, although most discussion was carried out over Skype. Glogowski explains that as well as responding to the changing unit size, the masterplan was also revised to accommodate personal requests by each household. ‘We did it many times,’ she recalls. ‘You change one window in one house and you have to change everything else.’

The end result is clearly worth the complexity. While the project has hints of the vernacular, or even contemporary Spanish modernism, it’s filtered through MK27’s distinctive South American approach to domestic space, with generous views of verdant landscapes and a mix of private and open spaces. Most importantly of all, these houses have created an instant neighbourhood, united by design.

‘Children especially love it – it’s like a small city,’ Glogowski says. The central ‘square’ has a communal swimming pool but the architects are quick to point out that this is not a gated community. ‘There are no exterior walls in this project,’ says Kogan. ‘The outside is defined by the shape of the houses, not walls.’ Public and private, personal and shared, the different spaces are clearly delineated to those in the know, yet the overall effect is a rich composition of life-enhancing forms.

As originally featured in the November 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*224)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Studio MK27 website and the Caledonian website

Brazilian modernism is perhaps best known for the way it translated the formality and rigour of the more austere European model into something far more expressive, celebratory and utterly at ease among nature. In South America, concrete attained new levels of plasticity and expressiveness, qualities that Brazil then sold back to the rest of the world. No contemporary architect better embodies the qualities of modern Brazilian architecture than Marcio Kogan. The 64-year-old architect has headed up Studio MK27 since 2001, working with a coterie of collaborators and co-architects, and venturing into exhibition design and film as well as conventional architectural design.

MK27’s two latest residential projects explore both extremes of the Brazilian architectural experience, each combining a love of formal simplicity and rich materiality, and each set within equally thrilling but very different sites. The SPenthouse sits at the summit of a new São Paulo apartment building, while its counterpart, the aptly named Jungle House (Casa Na Mata), is buried deep within dense vegetation on a coastal plot. Naturally, each residence projects a very different image, both in terms of the interior spatial and material arrangements and in the way they present the outside world to their occupants.

Jungle House is designed for a large city family to escape to at weekends and holidays, located in a verdant tropical zone that demanded a very careful approach to the site and the plan. Samanta Cafardo, the project architect, has worked at Studio MK27 since 2002 and has co-authored several of its substantial residential projects. ‘The idea was to insert the house into the landscape as unobtrusively as possible while maintaining the connection to the existing vegetation surrounding it and allowing for the sea view,’ she explains. A classic inverted design places living spaces and pool on the upper levels, with a central accommodation podium, and free-flowing circulation space at the base, where vegetation infringes on the crisply delineated edges of the concrete shell.

Jungle House consists of a series of layers, with overhanging roofs creating shielded semi-external spaces. ‘On the ground floor, where there is more shade and humidity, we located a playing area for the kids with a raised wooden deck amid the vegetation,’ says Cafardo. This space also helps the living areas connect with the surrounding jungle by raising them up to the canopy level. ‘When you’re inside the house, the connection with the surrounding vegetation happens in several ways,’ she says. ‘On the ground floor you can stroll amid the trees, on the first floor, light comes filtered through the treetops, and on the top floor the vegetation forms the backdrop along with the view of the sea.’

Working within a tightly defined area, the studio was forced to accommodate the house on the steepest part of the site. As a result, there is a strong vertical hierarchy as one ascends from forest floor up to the upper deck. Materials are typically Koganesque in their simplicity, with the shuttered concrete left bare on walls and ceilings and juxtaposed with finely cut timber for walls and floors. Custom-made fixed furniture is also deployed to emphasise the long, unbroken floor and ceiling plans, with glass balustrades used to create a dramatic cut-off point between house and jungle. The vegetation is seemingly held at bay by the precision and toughness of the architecture, but there’s a strong sense that it could infiltrate it at any time.

‘The studio’s projects always have a connection between interior and exterior,’ says Cafardo, whose colleague Diana Radomysler oversaw the interiors. ‘We want internal spaces to communicate with the outside, sometimes in a free and direct way, other times with relative discretion, depending on the use and atmosphere we want for each room.’ On the bedroom level, in particular, privacy and light are masked and filtered by lattice-like screens, or ‘muxarabis’, inspired by traditional Arabic mashrabiya. Overall, the architect explains that the approach is to ‘make the complicated seem simple’, allowing the visitor to become immersed in the qualities of the site.

There are very different qualities at play in SPenthouse, a new private dwelling on the top floor of a newly built apartment block. The project, overseen by Radomysler and Luciana Antunes, is also strictly zoned, with the defining elements of the plan formed by the distinction between public and private spaces. The penthouse has three distinct areas – an entertaining space, an internal garden and a private zone for the family. Several elements, such as the swimming pool, were already in place before the refurbishment, but the overhaul was substantial and Kogan’s studio pared back the detailing and reinforced the structure to give the new apartment the feeling of a wooden frame wrapped around a view.

A collection of midcentury furniture and fittings, especially purchased for the space, adds to the warm feel. The most prominent element is the wood-lined ‘central core’, with floor-to-ceiling hardwood panels and a stone floor. Every one of the textures and finishes – wood panels, slender planks, stone tiles and ceramic mosaics – is treated as a single, uninterrupted plane, with great attention paid to where two textures meet.

Studio MK27 has always emphasised the materiality of modernism, concealing structural gymnastics in favour of a strong simplicity that’s never abstract, just refined. It is architecture as an aesthetic frame, be it for a crowded metropolis or a dense jungle plot.

As originally featured in the April 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*205)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Studio MK27’s website

'The inspiration for this house,’ says Renata Furlanetto of studio mk27, ’was the client’s art collection and a ramp. The house was built around them.’ The explanation sounds almost like a throwaway line, but its reification as a solid, three-dimensional house in a quiet leafy São Paulo neighbourhood is gratifyingly breathtaking. 

In many ways, the aptly named Ramp House bears all the trademarks of Marcio Kogan’s studio. The living room, invariably the focus of the Brazilian architect’s attention, is an elongated right-angled volume sheathed in raw concrete that opens into a sheltered 4m-wide verandah that, in turn, leads into a minimalist landscape. 

Of course, the almost careless ease with which the interiors translate into the exterior in a very complex way, solves the problem of Brazil’s warm days and blinding sunlight while continuing a dialogue that the architects describe is based on ’the tradition of Brazilian architecture, both colonial and modern, which used historically analogous spaces for spatial transitions.’

Take an interactive tour of Ramp House

On the building’s east side, shielded by a full ground-to-roof wall of concrete breeze-blocks, is a covered 25.5m long ramp that pin-turns its way up from the ground level to connects the living room with the bedrooms and small home offices on the upper levels. 

The sleight of hand intervention continues with a ground floor facade of local timber that folds into the interior, becomes the roof liner that, in turn, folds back into the ramp to provide a soothing contrast to the concrete breeze-blocks. 

All of which sets the stage for the owners’ rare collection of African art. ’Our brief,’ Furnaletto goes on, ’was to create a home that in the future could become a foundation, but without the feeling of living inside a museum.’

The architect says the Ramp House’s decor and interior design - here, the wonderfully intimate but spare mood is the work of the studio’s Diana Radomysler - was conceived as a fundamental part of the architecture. Specific structural designs for the display of African masks, for instance, are balanced by a mix old and new furniture pieces by Joaquim Tenreiro, Sergio Rodrigues, Vladimir Kagan and George Nakashima. 

’The brief,’ says Furlanetto, ’was resolved through the architectural promenade, the smooth connections between different environments, the coziness brought by the use of natural materials, and the blending between art and everyday objects.’ It is, in other words, another understated triumph for Kogan and his team. 

INFORMATION

For more information on Marcio Kogan and Studio mk27 visit the website

Photography: Fernando Guerra

Vietnam is a country on the rise. Since the mid-80s, a comprehensive suite of political and economic reforms has transformed the country from one of the poorest in the world into what the World Bank enthusiastically hails as a development success story. The proof in the pudding is the gold rush of building projects. Admittedly, the majority is targeted at the foreign spend but that is not to discount the growing corps of middle-to upper-income group whose aspirational goals are on track to turn this region into the coming decade's new China.

Headlining the latest crop of high-profile residential developments is Caye Sereno. Its location in the UNESCO Heritage-listed Halong Bay is flawless with every one of the 18 three to six bedroom-villas featuring panoramic views of water and rocky outcropped islands. The Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan imparts his trademark penchant for massive volumes carved out of concrete slabs that somehow seem to float over the landscape while effortlessly erasing the line between interior and exterior. 

'Jonathan Cheng, CEO of the property developer Jen Capital, knew some of our projects,' Kogan says. 'He is a great fan of Brazilian music and architecture and felt a great empathy with our work. The design is a response to the unique site. We were very careful on how to set the houses and preserve everyone's amazing views. Working in one of the most beautiful places in the world frightened me at the beginning.'

The results, however, are fearless while incorporating what Kogan describes as 'a sense of extreme gentleness with the entire surrounding area.' Specifically, the interior spaces are framed in locally sourced material. These flow in a seamless sequence as natural stone masonry and moveable glass walls expand and contract rooms to suit the mood and occasion. 

Meanwhile, the enormous bedrooms upstairs are cantilevered out over the living room to create a patio - kitted out with an outdoor grill and kitchenette - that's sheltered from the elements but without sacrificing a whiff of sea-breeze. In turn, this segues into a private infinity pool.

The starting price of $3m includes a gym and yoga studio (with views, of course), tennis court and water activities centre, while a 27-hole golf course is in the works.

INFORMATION

For more information on Studio MK27 visit the website

An expert in modernist-inspired but truly contemporary and bespoke residential design, Marcio Kogan is coordinating from his Sao Paulo practice, Studio MK27, projects in Brazil as well as internationally. He also recently tried his hand at furniture design, creating a beautiful series of one-off pieces that he presented at the MiCasa design store.

Now seems to be a good time for Brazil. Would you agree?

Indeed, I do agree.

What instigated the change you think?

It was the economy, but I also have this theory that Brazilian architecture had a hangover after the modernism era! Le Corbusier came to design the Ministry of Education and Health and many local architects saw it and were inspired by it and transformed it into a Brazilian thing. In my opinion, this was even better than Le Corbusier. What was very interesting also is that in Brazil at the time, there was absolutely nothing; it was isolated from the world and then suddenly you get what may be some of the best architecture of the world.

The legacy of Modernism is so strong here that I wonder if, in any way, that could complicate things for contemporary Brazilian architects?

That may have been true before, but we are in a generation that is starting to turn this around. When I was in architecture school, I hated Niemeyer as all the teachers wanted us to follow his example, while I wanted to do something a bit different. Now, of course, I understand and fully respect his work.

What else should we visit in Brazil?

Undoubtedly, the Le Corbusier building in Rio as well as the Parque Guinle by Lucio Costa that's also in Rio.

What were your main influences? What elements of the Modernist movement did you keep in your architecture?

I think, in a way, it is the same Modernism, only after 50 years. It has a more contemporary vision, new materials and new technological options.

You father was also in the construction business. How did that influence you?

He passed away when I was young but still he was a huge influence for me. It must have been in my DNA! My house was exactly like Jacque Tati’s Villa Arpel (of Mon Oncle). They wanted to do a high tech house and it was the Fifties and everything was automatic. Technology didn't always work as well back then! When the tram went past our house and it stopped outside, we had a small power cut.

Do you consider you architecture to be quite Brazilian then?

Yes, it is quite Brazilian.

How would you describe Brazilian architecture? What would make your architecture Brazilian?

The openness and the huge integration of the interior and the exterior. This is also our mission when we design abroad: to open up the buildings to the outside world!

What you feel are the biggest advantages of being a young architect in Brazil today?

We have many advantages, but many problems too. We don't have many public building, but we have a lot of small buildings and private projects. The city of Brazil is a bit like the Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino: flexible and experimental and organic. It's still growing.

What else are you working on now?

A photographic studio in Sao Paulo, a condominium in Portugal, interiors of a hotel in Portugal with the same client. About 90% of our work is in private houses.

So, do you enjoy working mainly with private houses?

I do. I am very perfectionist and like detail. We often design everything in a house, from handrails to one-off pieces of furniture.

Architect: Marcos Acayaba

Project: Acayaba House, 1997
Read our Q&A with Marcos Acayaba

Project: Baeta House, 1993

Project: Olga House, 1990

Project: Pindorama Pavilion, 1985

Project: Terpins House, 1992

Architect: Angelo Bucci of SPBR

Project: Apartment building in Lugano
Read our Q&A with Angelo Bucci

Project: Atilba Leonel School in Sao Paulo

Project: House in Santa Teresa

Project: Housing complex in Algarve

Project: Mediatheque PUC in Rio de Janeiro

Architect: Bernardes + Jacobsen

Project: Guaruja House, 2007
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: Guaruja House, 2007
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: JH House
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: JZ House
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: JZ House
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Architect: Marcelo Ferraz of Brasil Arquitetura

Project: Bread Museum
Photography: Nelson Kon
Read our Q&A with Marcelo Ferraz

Project: Igatu Museum

Project: ISA
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Conjunto KKKK
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Rodin Museum
Photography: Nelson Kon

Architect: Arthur Casas

Project: PK Iporanga residence

Project: KAA restaurant, Sao Paulo

Project: MP House

Project: Avenue Atlantica apartment, 2009

Project: AC Iporanga, 2005

Architect: Marcio Kogan

Project: Bahia
Photography: Nelson Kon
Read our Q&A with Marcio Kogan

Project: Micasa Volume B
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Osler House
Photography: Pedro Vannucchi

Project: Paraty House
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Prime Time

Architect: Eduardo Longo

Project: Casa GL

Project: Casa GL

Project: Casa CMC

Project: Casa CAL

Project: Casa CEG

Project: Apartamento MG

Project: Apartamento MG

Project: Proposta Para O Elevado Costa E Silva

Project: Proposta Para O Elevado Costa E Silva

Project: Proposta Praca Roosevelt - Praia Roosevelt

Project: Apartamento do Bola

Project: Casa Bola Galia

Project: Casa Bola Galia

Project: Casa Bola Galia

Project: Casa CMC

Architect: Fernando de Mello Franco of MMBB

Project: Boaaava residence
Photography: Nelson Kon
Read our Q&A with Fernando de Mello Franco

Project: Antonico Creek reurbanisation - Plan of the typical sector

Project: Headquarters of Corporacion Andina de Fomento, Caracas, Venezuela
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Music centre at Campos do Jordao
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Music centre at Campos do Jordao
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Vila Roma residence
Photography: Nelson Kon

Architect: Ruy Ohtake

Project: FCC Biulding, 2005
Photography: Nelson Kon
Read our Q&A with Ruy Ohtake

Project: FCC Building, 2005
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2003
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2003
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2003
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2003
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2003
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Project: Op Art Flagship Store, 2009
Photography: ROAU Archive

Project: Op Art Flagship Store, 2009
Photography: ROAU Archive

Project: Daniel Rosseler Residence, 2009
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Daniel Rosseler Residence, 2009
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Daniel Rosseler Residence, 2009
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Daniel Rosseler Residence, 2009
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Daniel Rosseler Residence, 2009
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Daniel Rosseler Residence, 2009
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Daniel Rosseler Residence, 2009
Photography: Daniel Ducci

Project: Zuleika Halpern Residence, 2005
Photography: Turca Reines

Project: Zuleika Halpern Residence, 2005
Photography: Turca Reines

Project: Santa Catarina Building, 2003
Photography: Daniel Ducci, Carlos Gueller

Project: Santa Catarina Building, 2003
Photography: Daniel Ducci, Carlos Gueller

Architect: Isay Weinfeld Architects

Project: Havaianas
Photography: Nelson Kon

Project: Fasano Las Piedras Hotel
Photography: Luiza Sigulem

Project: Midrash
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Wallpaper* grabbed a recent opportunity to catch up with Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan, who took us through his ideas about life, architecture and his passion for São Paulo.

What is your guiding design principle?

We always seek to use a simple design with a mix of materials that are typically Brazilian. And we like to contrast materials.

Who are two of your heroes?

In the Osler House, we incorporated a ceramic panel that was specially designed by Athos Bucão. It was his last project. He did all of the classic Brasilia panels for Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa. The incredible João Filgueiras Lima, or Lelé as he’s better known – he was a genius of sustainability long before the idea became commonplace.

Why are you so fascinated with the box form?

I enjoy its ludic aspect. To me, it seems to be the most natural form to use throughout the architectural process.

So much of your work is based in São Paulo. Architecturally, what emotions does the city stir in you?

I am addicted to São Paulo. It’s one of the most interesting cities in the world. It is absolutely chaotic, ugly, polluted and any other unpleasant adjectives one might imagine, but with energy that is absolutely fantastic and unparalleled. The mixture of everything creates a unique and impassioned personality.

What’s in store for the city?

Even greater chaos. Its infrastructure develops at a slower pace than its growth.

Which of your buildings is your favourite?

Mi Casa Vol. B in São Paulo. But when we finish the island house in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, that will be my favourite.

Which building do you wish you had designed?

The Barcelona pavilion by Mies Van Der Rohe.

What's a well designed building?

I have always admired Brazilian modernism that began in the 1930s. Incredible work was done by dozens of starchitects like Lucio Costa, Lina Bo Bardi, Oscar Niemeyer, Rino Levi and Affonso Reidy. It’s always surprising to me that in the early and mid-20th century, Brazil produced the projects that it did – so simple and elegant. A lesson for our superfluous world in crisis.

And so what’s a badly designed building?

It is not a question of beautiful or ugly. What bothers me is the exaggeration in architecture today: it’s almost baroque and very costly. Recently, I participated in an exhibit of international architecture in Barcelona and – amid all the sophisticated and expensive designs and starchitects – the project I liked most was actually not a building but one related to renewable resources. The Community Cooker is, simply, a very low-tech process by the Kenyan company Planning Systems Services where garbage is turned into fuel. By our standards, it would be considered ugly, but it provides sustenance for thousands of people. So, which matters more? As Oscar Niemeyer would say, “Life is more important than architecture”.

What will Marcio Kogan be doing 10 years from now?

I hope to be alive.

Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan plays with space in a way that makes you think that if he ever gets bored, a second career as a movie set designer awaits.

See more of Corten House and C16H14O3 House by Marcio Kogan

Based in São Paulo, Kogan’s 20-strong firm continues to be busy with projects in every corner of Brazil. Of his four most recent offerings, three (the Corten House, Panama House and C16H14O3 House) are located in São Paulo while the fourth (the Osler House) is in Brasilia. (Photos of Corten House and C16H14O3 House are featured in our gallery, above.

See more of the Osler Houe and Panama House

Through all four projects, the box form – Kogan’s favourite motif – occurs time and again but in carefully nuanced combinations: precisely planed concrete boxes within boxes (a function of security concerns in São Paulo); stoned lined boxes on top of boxes; and timber slatted boxes that open outwards towards a slim-lined lap pool perhaps with no doors to mark inside or outside.

But there is, as our gallery shows, nothing hemmed in about these houses. Instead, the elegant economy to Kogan’s use of volumes translates to a very real sense of freedom. The result is airy, light-washed spaces that seem barely tethered to the ground, an apt escapist image perhaps for São Paulo’s congested megapolis.

We caught up with Kogan recently for a quick chat about life and architecture in his favourite city.