sambaDoing it WORDS AARONstyle PEASLEY Brazil’s craft-based heritage, diverse cultural origins and vast population have given birth to an exciting and expressive design identity. From the modernist architectural vision of Niemeyer to the commercial fashion nous of Havaianas, the largest country in South America could well be the next design superpower. hy: gettyhy: images P Photogra Backstage at the Alexandre Herchcovitch show, São Paulo Fashion Week (Winter 2014) APRIl 2014 QANTAS 61 DESIGN BRAZIL Fasano Boa Vista Hotel (left); Poltrona Semine chair or much of the previous century, Brazil’s captivating (below) by Domingos Tótora, who recycles cardboard design scene went largely unnoticed. Except for the obvious cultural into a wood-like material that he uses to build furniture totems – bikinis, thongs, samba, Carmen Miranda – Brazil’s vast size and relative isolation, plus 21 years of totalitarian military rule, kept its exceptional art, design and architecture far from the global spotlight. As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, it is clear that times have changed. The turning point for design was the mid-’80s, when exiled artists and creatives returned with the transition to civil- ian government. “After 20 years of dictatorship, Brazilians started recovering their self-esteem and focusing on their Brazilian roots to create an identity,” says Humberto Campana of Brazil’s most famous design duo, the Campana Brothers. Well before the 1964 military coup, Brazil was shedding its colonial roots. tora When the new capital, Brasília, was being unveiled in 1956, its revolutionary Ó design called for commensurately bold interiors. Architects, including principal designer Oscar Niemeyer, turned to homegrown talent such as Sérgio Rodrigues and Joaquim Tenreiro, who kept traditional materials – rosewood, jacaranda and imbuia (Brazilian walnut) trees – but broke free of the heavy colonial style then prevalent. With elemental pieces incorporating stainless-steel, leather and rattan, a new vision of interior design complemented the bold new architecture. For the uninitiated, Brazil’s architectural treasures can seem otherworldly. The late Oscar Niemeyer, the country’s most famous architect, conceived some hy: nelsonhy: kon; chair: domingos t of the most audacious buildings of the 20th century, including Rio’s astounding P Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, Brasília’s National Congress building and São Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park Dome. Niemeyer’s style, which injected emotion into modernism, has inspired a generation of contemporary architects such as Isay Weinfeld, who creates sublimely understated buildings, including the hotel Photogra 62 QANTAS APRIL 2014 DESIGN BBRAZILRAZIL ONLINE SOUTH of Campos do Jordão outside São Paulo. Designed by architect AMERICA Candida Tabet, the “post-luxury” hotel is foremost a showcase for Admire the Andes in Chile Brazilian design. Academic and design authority Adelia Borges or tangle with the tango in Argentina – for the best curated the interiors, featuring hardwood floors and rare chocolate of South America visit slate. There are leather and wood armchairs, handcrafted pieces by qantas.com/travelinsider Pedro Petry, ottomans by Aristeu Pires and installations including a bar made of reclaimed wooden boxes created by Heloísa Crocco. The transformation of prosaic objects or discarded materials into new Fasano Boa Vista Hotel, which blends wood, stone, and glass exuberant visual statements is a motif often seen in Brazilian art in a quintessentially Brazilian way. and design. Domingos Tótora, a sculptor and furniture maker based The same aesthetic legacy is found in Brazil’s impeccably crafted in the mountainous region of Minas Gerais, has perfected a method modern furniture, which is among the most coveted by design that transforms used cardboard into a wood-like material, which aficionados. Zesty Meyers, whose Manhattan gallery, R 20th he uses to make furniture and vases. Andrea “Tété” Knecht, one of Century, sells blue-chip examples, believes Brazil’s furniture, and a new generation of Brazilian designers, favours unorthodox design output in general, has a sense of freedom and relaxed materials such as straw (shoes) and rubber inner-tubes (vases), elegance. “When you have a nice climate, amazing amounts of wood while fashion designer Jum Nakao is one of the country’s most as a natural resource and phenomenal carpenters that can make innovative voices with his provocative garments, which include anything imaginable, it makes for a freedom you don’t see in the origami-like couture dresses made with paper. rest of the world. If you put a Danish chair next to a Brazilian chair, The Campana Brothers made their name by celebrating the the two pieces would be drastically different,” says Meyers. aesthetics of the favela, Brazil’s low-income urban settlements. With This sense of “perfect imperfection” is the result of Brazil’s unorthodox furniture – such as the 1991 Favela chair, assembled extraordinary artesanos. Brazilian craftspeople are accustomed to with scraps of pinewood used in slum housing, and the Multidao producing beautiful objects from what they have on hand – whether chair (2002), which features children’s rag dolls in place of fabric – the gettyhy: images P it’s timber, rattan, rubber or banana leaves. pair turned to the cheap materials ubiquitous among poor urban Many of Brazil’s new-generation hotels are repositories for classic communities in São Paulo and Rio. “We are constantly researching furniture and artisanal craftwork. Although Frenchman Philippe ‘trivial’ disposable materials in order to serve their nobility,” says Photogra Starck designed it, Rio’s luxurious Fasano Hotel is a microcosm of Brazilian design’s greatest hits. Situated among the new towers, independent galleries and restaurants that have sprung up along Ipanema Beach in the past decade, the hotel’s lobby and guestrooms showcase the work of Sérgio Rodrigues and Brazilian design studio Branco & Preto. Each of the 91 rooms evinces a laid-back luxe sensuality that’s a staple of Brazilian architecture and interiors. Less a traditional hotel than a stridently eco-conscious experi- ment, is Botanique, a six-suite, 11-villa property in the lush mountains Brazilian National Congress, Brasília, designed by Oscar Niemeyer 64 QANTAS APRIL 2014 DESIGN Brazilian fashion: Osklen (above) and Jum Nakao (right); Carallo chair by Campana Brothers (far right) Humberto Campana. “At first, we decided to work with cheap increasingly competitive. For now, fashion is a relative secret, best materials since we could not afford expensive ones. Today, this is a discovered on a stroll along São Paulo’s chic Oscar Freire Street. conscious choice due to our concerns with the environment.” There, you’ll find the colourful headquarters of Melissa, a 32-year old Environmental challenges (such as deforestation of the Amazon) brand known for ebullient plastic sandals designed by guests such notwithstanding, Brazil’s design and architecture has pioneered as Jean Paul Gaultier and Zaha Hadid. Among the most popular sustainability and eco-consciousness. “There are dozens of resources brands, and breaking through globally, is Oskar Metsavaht’s label that are only now being studied and respectfully used, generally Osklen, embodying Brazil’s laid-back beach-meets-street aesthetic. through employing the ancestral expertise of local community resi- As the fashion scene grows – there are two fashion weeks each year, dents,” says Adelia Borges, adding that discarded garbage is being in São Paulo and Rio – so do the most successful designers, which ller upcycled to make new products for low-income communities. Among include Adriana Barra, Alexandre Herchcovitch and Gloria Coelho. Ü other “new” materials are banana fibre, fish skins, vines, straw and If anything, the non-conformist Brazilian aesthetic is more of plants such as buriti and curana. “Working with nature and what a feeling than a manifesto, a point-of-view that captures the country nature gives you is a way of life in Brazil,” says Meyers. “The idea of in all of its messy contradictions – spectacular scenery, vibrant street sustainability and giving back to the community is well established.” life and first-rate craftsmanship. As Oscar Niemeyer once wrote, Brazil also has a sophisticated fashion scene, reflecting a vibrant “What attracts me is the free and sensual curve,” and there seems national identity, a blend of indigenous communities, Afro- little doubt that most of Brazil’s contemporary design creatives have Brazilians, Portuguese colonialists and immigrants from all over followed suit, producing work that embraces their country’s hy: gettyhy: images; chair: evelyn m the world. Perhaps no single product represents Brazil’s high/low celebratory independent streak and craftwork traditions. P divide quite like the ubiquitous Havaianas thongs. Introduced 50 “Brazilian design is complex,” says Fernando Campana. “I think years ago, the rubber flip-flops became a staple among low-income design in Brazil is much more about intuition – in Europe and the hotogra workers before going global more than a decade ago. US it is more about rationalism. It P For airfares to Brazil Brazil’s robust economy and label-conscious consumers have call Qantas on 13 13 13 or is complex, emotional and intuitive. It is attracted global luxury labels, but the domestic fashion industry is visit qantas.com organic design.” fashion 66 QANTAS APRIL 2014.