What we saw at Design Weekend São Paulo

With international travel plans back to a pre-pandemic schedule, there were three design events the second week of March (at least that we know of): Design Week RD in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Arctic Design Week in Rovaniemi (Finland) and Design Weekend São Paulo (Brazil). We were invited to the latter and to discover this massive megalopolis toured by design and architecture experts.

We will definitely be back next year to continue to explore this vibrant, dynamic and diverse design community of Saõ Paolo. Here is an overview of what we saw and what we loved there. However, as always, it is not so much about the new chair, the new showroom, the new event, it is about the people you meet and the energy of the design community. The week was rich, inspiring with no shortage of wonderful people.

Tomie Ohtake’s house, designed buy Ruy Ohtake

ETEL Design

Lissa Carmona, daugher of Etel Carmona who founded the company, welcomed us in their gallery.
The Design Collection at ETEL comprises one century of Brazilian furniture. With its pioneering reedition work, ETEL brings back graceful designs of the modern Brazilian production – which was only discovered lately and is now considered as one of the most relevant worldwide for that period.
The new collections designed by Patricia Urquiola or Christina Celestino are elegantly displayed with the classic pieces of Jorge Zalszupin or Lina Bo Bardi.

Casa Zalszupin

This was the residence that Jorge Zalszupin designed and in which he lived in for almost 60 years, ETEL and Almeida & Dale open the space that will be the headquarters of the Jorge Zalszupin Institute, dedicated to researching and documenting the collection, and to exhibitions.

Edifício Virginia

Three floors of artists and designers installations in this downtown building that will go under a massive renovation. The developers, Somauma, and Lauro Andrade, the founder of DW! (Saõ Paolo Design Week) are using design and art as a channel to bring the creative community to this area of the city. The result was incredibly inspiring.
Ben Dreith, US Editor of Dezeen, wrote about it HERE

The Feira Na Rosenbaum

The Feira Na Rosenbaum is a market for designers, artists and artisans from all over Brazil. It’s a place where you get an interesting panorama of contemporary craft, emerging designers/makers.

Cris Rosenbaum, Founder of Feira Na Rosenbaum. Image credit: Daniel Ribeiro

And more…

There was a lot more that we saw like the “Design para Ver e Comer” exhibition, Paulo Alves showroom, BOOMSPDESIGN, and the ORNARE factory.

ORNARE factory, located in the suburbs of SP

Special thanks to Abimóvel and DW! Sao Paolo