The exhibition "Vilanova Artigas: Living Structures" brings together models, drawings, panels, and texts in celebration of the 110th anniversary of the architect's birth.
Submitted at Dec 2, 2025, 3:14 PM
Exposição "Vilanova Artigas: Estruturas Vivas" (Marcos Santos/USP Imagens/Divulgação)
The Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU) at USP is exhibiting, until December 2, the show "Vilanova Artigas: Living Structures", dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth of João Batista Vilanova Artigas. Installed in the Caramel Hall, the exhibition features significant projects by the author of the FAU-USP building, broadening the perspective on his production and his contribution to the formulation of the pedagogical structure of the school.
Organized from models, original drawings, panels and texts by the architect, the exhibition proposes more than a documentary cut. It highlights Artigas’ understanding of architecture as a space for coexistence, circulation, and collective invention — a thought that traverses all his work and remains alive in the building that hosts the exhibition.
Among the highlights of "Vilanova Artigas: Living Structures" is a full-scale reproduction of one of the pillars of the Anhembi Tennis Club gymnasium, in addition to original drawings by the architect donated to FAU in 2009.
(FotoVideoFAU/Divulgação)
Four models of original projects by Artigas were developed by students of the university in an extension activity, namely: the Social Headquarters of the Anhembi Tennis Club, the Jaú Bus Station, the Santa Paula Yacht Club, and the FAU building itself.
(FotoVideoFAU/Divulgação)
To complete, the FAU building itself appears as a character in the exhibition. Visitors are invited to observe the model of the building almost at the same time they walk through the real ramps – an overlap between projected architecture and lived architecture!
Born in Curitiba in 1915, Vilanova Artigas moved to São Paulo at the age of 18 to study engineering and architecture at the Polytechnic School of USP. This hybrid education profoundly marked his work, in which constructive technique, formal rigor, and interest in visual arts appear as inseparable foundations.
Artigas was one of the founders of FAU-USP in 1948 and one of the main architects of the Education Reform of 1962, which established innovative pedagogical guidelines for training in architecture and urbanism. His work is part of the repertoire of the so-called Paulista School, a branch of Brazilian modernism that values exposed concrete, structural honesty, and spatial clarity.
When: Until December 02, 2025 Hours: Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 7 pm Where: Rua do Lago, 876 – Cidade Universitária, São Paulo
