Long queues, a cacophony of final calls and a maze of wheelie bags – airports rarely soothe the nervous system. Sala Pedra Preta, Brazilian bank Itaú’s new flagship lounge in Terminal 3 of São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, offers a sculptural reprieve. Operated by Plaza Premium Group, it welcomes holders of the Itaú Personnalité The One Mastercard Black and World Legend Mastercard, alongside select Itaú Private Bank clients.
Sala Pedra Preta, São Paulo
Façade
The project brought together global practice Perkins&Will, responsible for the architecture and interiors, and famed Brazilian studio Estúdio Campana, which led the art direction and environmental curation. Its approximately 1,400 sq m effortlessly meshes spaces for rest, work, gathering, dining and wellbeing. ‘The inspiration came entirely from the landscape,’ Humberto Campana tells Wallpaper*. ‘I wanted the journey to begin the moment the traveller enters the space – to feel as though they are already embarking on a journey through Brazilian landscapes.’
That journey begins before guests reach the threshold. Estúdio Campana’s façade wraps the lounge in a sculptural skin of Brazilian Goiabão wood, translating the Juruá River’s curves, seen from above, into 1,000 sq m of overlapping veneer. The result turns the private lounge’s boundary into a public artwork – ‘certainly an eye-catcher to travellers’, as described by Campana. Its sinuous timber forms create ‘a sense of warmth and movement’ that carries through to the sofas and the lounge beyond.
Reception
Personnalité Bar
The sylvan interiors carry the subtropical lilt of Estudio Campana’s Brazilian roots and expound on the studio's devotion to ethical design and community support. Craft and materials evoke landscapes across the country, from the night skies of Jalapão in Tocantins and the delicate vegetation of the Cerrado to Rio de Janeiro’s mountains and the cliffs of Rio Grande do Norte. ‘Ultimately, I wanted to create an invitation to travel through Brazil: its landscapes, its topographies and its different ecosystems,’ adds Campana.
The furniture’s simple forms belie the labour behind them. At reception, the ‘Pão de Açúcar’ counter is clad in overlapping walnut veneer, applied by hand by a team of 14 over 120 working days. Above it, the ‘Paisagem’ chandelier gathers roughly a quarter-tonne of twisted aluminium into a gold-toned canopy that casts light like foliage.
Personnalité Restaurant
Private Restaurant
Aluminium takes another form at the Personnalité Restaurant, where the Cosmos installation suspends around half a tonne of rods in a constellation visible to lounge guests and passengers passing through Terminal 3. In the Private Bank area, the emphasis returns to intricate handwork: drawing on the studio’s ‘Sushi’ collection, the Falésias installation winds hundreds of metres of EVA, metal strips and rubber into orange, black and gold spirals – an undertaking of around 800 hours. The bar front adds another distinctive texture, clad in pirarucu leather made from the skin of an Amazonian freshwater fish once discarded as waste.
Curated by Instituto Itaú Cultural, the art collection includes works by Roberto Burle Marx, Tomie Ohtake, Candido Portinari, Di Cavalcanti, Beatriz Milhazes, Vik Muniz, Leda Catunda and Athos Bulcão, among others. Gastronomy comes from chef Luiz Filipe Souza of Evvai, with wines selected by sommelier Juliana Carani.
Private Room
For Campana, the spatial logic was as important as the objects. ‘The space is organic yet streamlined,’ he says. ‘Everything flows, creating a sense of spatial lightness – almost like the wings of an aeroplane.’ It also marked a significant moment for the studio following the death of his brother and co-founder, Fernando, in 2022. ‘It was our first architectural project since Fernando passed away,’ he adds. ‘So it was an important moment for the studio.’