Children's Day: places in SP with an architecture that welcomes children

Children's Day is an invitation to rediscover São Paulo from a more playful perspective. The city, known for its urban density and fast pace, also features spaces where architecture opens up to play, movement, and interaction. Environments that go beyond function — transforming into sensory experiences capable of welcoming, educating, and inspiring the little ones. From the brutalist boldness of Lina Bo Bardi to the dialogue between art and landscape conceived by Niemeyer and Burle Marx, these places reveal how good architecture can create emotional bonds between children and the city. On Children's Day, they become the ideal destination for those seeking experiences that unite culture, leisure, and discovery. Check below!

Sesc 24 de Maio

Designed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha in partnership with MMBB Architects, Sesc 24 de Maio is one of the most emblematic buildings in downtown São Paulo. Its 13 floors house exhibitions, theater, cafes, and a semi-Olympic swimming pool on the roof — a true urban oasis with a panoramic view of the city! On Children's Day, the unit transforms into a vertical playground. The climbing wall on the eighth floor, the reflecting pool on the 11th, and the play spaces scattered across the floors invite families to explore each floor as a new adventure. The building reveals, on an architectural scale, the idea that play can happen at any height.

Sesc Pompeia

Among the icons of Brazilian architecture, Sesc Pompeia is the most powerful example of how space can inspire the body and imagination. Lina Bo Bardi preserved the structure of the old drum factory from the 1930s and reinvented it as a cultural center, connecting the blocks with concrete walkways that seem to float in the air.

Children find there an architecture that invites movement: ramps, passages, and openings that stimulate curious gazes. Programs like "Play Space" and "Curumim" reinforce this playful vocation of the building — a place where art, coexistence, and freedom intersect.

Centro Cultural São Paulo

Centro Cultural São Paulo is one of the first cultural spaces in the country to adopt the concept of an "open center." The project by architects Eurico Prado Lopes and Luiz Telles, inaugurated in 1982, integrates the landscape with ramps, gardens, and large glass panels that invite people to linger. For children, the CCSP is an extension of urban play: there are areas for reading, workshops, shows, games, and even outdoor spaces where young people gather to dance or play. It is an example of democratic architecture, welcoming different ages and ways of being — a celebration of the city as a meeting place.

MuBE (Brazilian Museum of Sculpture and Ecology)

Signed by Oscar Niemeyer with landscaping by Roberto Burle Marx, MuBE is one of the most symbolic spaces in São Paulo when considering the integration between art and projects. Its slabs, reflecting pools, and open areas create a free territory for children's curiosity. During Children's Day, the museum usually offers art workshops, interactive activities, and exhibitions that stimulate the sensitive gaze from an early age. The architecture, marked by concrete and emptiness, intuitively teaches that it's in the space between forms where imagination and belonging are born.

Ibirapuera Planetarium

The Professor Aristóteles Orsini Planetarium, in Ibirapuera Park, unites history, science, and architecture in a unique experience. Designed by Eduardo Corona, Roberto Tibau, and Antônio Carlos Pitombo, the building is recognized for its 18-meter diameter dome, which houses the Starmaster projector — a visual immersion spectacle. There, Children's Day takes on a cosmic touch. The listed structure and the wooded surroundings create the perfect setting to awaken interest in the universe, expanding the idea of architecture as a mediator between knowledge and enchantment.