In Sanpa, as a carioca.

In Sanpa, as a carioca.

architecture brazilian food são paulo design suites designers´suites sheraton WTC

adword December 08, 2010 Add Comment

the view from the breakfast room on the 15th floor of Sheraton WTC

by Antonella Kann

Even though I´ve been visiting São Paulo since I was a little girl, this huge and buzzling metropolis always leaves me in a state of confusion. I wouldn´t take the wheel for the sake of my dear life, for instance…
Anyhow, I do come quite often for dear friends and work - both are meaningful in this palpitating city. This time, it was for the launching ( or re-launching) of my travel photography book “Flashes of the World”, an event which was kindly sponsored by Sheraton WTC hotel ( http://www.sheraton.com/ ) and italian restaurant Mercatto Caffé.
You may have different opinions and say whatever you want about the "looks" of São Paulo – not a feather of beauty compared to Rio – but I insist to say that in the matter of service and quality, everything is grand.

It has a level of sophistication which pairs nowhere else in Brazil, with very few exceptions. My design suite, for instance, is one of the 67 exclusive rooms which bears the signature of a renowned interior designer and/or architect. This is an inovator project of personalizing a few floors of a five star hotel in order to make you feel more at home, let´s say. Well, I had a king size bed with fluffy pillows galore, comfy robe and wide LED screen with many channels in several languages. I almost lost my appointment watching a French thriller … And there were plenty of Granado´s ammenities in the bathroom, even a body scrub sponge.

São Paulo is indeed the richest town in this country and you can fulfill almost everything in your wishlist. From expensive cars to designers´clothes and furniture for your house. By the way, the Sheraton is right inside one of the most sophisticated shopping center called D& D, dedicated to design and decoration. You just walk out of your room and stroll up and down three floors of fantastic high end stores…Think fabrics, wall paper, tapestry….

And you eat well in Sanpa. Really well. Our venue, well located the Mercatto Caffé (Helio Pellegrino, 198, in Vila Nova Conceição) is an italian restaurant with good pasta, honestly cooked al dente, and reasonable prices. The atmosphere is very relaxed. You don´t even need to be launching a book – just enjoy the focaccia and draft beer at one of the al fresco tables on the terrace.

Álvaro Siza's Fundação Iberê Camargo, in Porto Alegre: a masterpiece

Álvaro Siza's Fundação Iberê Camargo, in Porto Alegre: a masterpiece

Álvaro Siza architecture Fundação Iberê Camargo Porto Alegre Rio Grande do Sul

adword August 02, 2010 Add Comment

By Alexandra Forbes

“In a building, I like the light, but I also like the half-light and even the darkness – they’re complimentary things,” says Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza. 

His project for the Fundação Iberê Camargo, in Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil, is a study in how to tame light.

Sunrays penetrate through only a few small windows (some bean-shaped, some rectangular) facing west at skewed angles and providing just enough illumination on the inside.

From the outside, the central idea that guides the art foundation’s gleaming form, inspired partly by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim in New York, is rather simple. A ramp system circles around an empty core from top to bottom; at times, it’s contained within the building structure, at others, jutting out beyond the façade, the zig-zag adds texture and movement to an otherwise stark exterior. Here and there, windows reveal stunning vistas of the vast Guaíba River below. And at various points the ramps lead to galleries that house a collection of more than 4,000 works by renowned Brazilian expressionist Iberê Camargo, who died of cancer in 1994.

In designing the building, the Pritzker-prize laureate contended with greater obstacles than the harsh tropical rays. He had to work with a very narrow strip of land, facing a busy expressway and perched on a bluff overlooking the Guaíba. In an engineering tour de force, he carved an access to the museum and parking lot out of the rock underneath the noisy road. He drew the building tall and narrow enough that the steep cliff at the back, blanketed in thick tropical forest, could be left intact. As a result, the bright white structure – built of tinted cement – pops beautifully against a green canvas.


Although Siza is not particularly known for energy-saving initiatives, the museum is in synch the times through various integrated systems as well: rainwater is captured and reused in the bathrooms, and gardens are irrigated with water from the building’s own treatment plant. Rock wool insulation keeps the building comfortable, while the ramps are cooled with water that runs through thin plastic tubing. Yet it is its sculptural shape and angular whiteness that has locals talking. It may not boast the enormity and shine of a Guggenheim Bilbao, but the Fundação trumps Oscar Niemeyer’s Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art as the most iconic museum in Brazil.