(Salvador Cordaro/CASACOR)
The brise-soleils that surround the first floor of Conjunto Nacional , on Avenida Paulista, have been part of the landscape and memory of São Paulo for more than six decades. But few people really know what lies behind that sequence of concrete strips. “It is a almost secret place in the city”, says architect Lourenço Gimenes , from the FGMF office, responsible for the implementation consultancy for CASACOR São Paulo 2022 . Since the building opened, the 9,000 square meter slab has been used only by employees and visitors of the companies that have set up shop there. Closed and unused for ten years , the place will be back to life thanks to the largest decoration exhibition in America. Latina, which will occupy the space (and another section of the open terrace, just above) between July 5th and September 11th . Fachada Conjunto Nacional - sede da CASACOR São Paulo 2022 (Ulisses Agnelli/CASACOR)
Invited to plan the distribution of the spaces across the floor — a proposal developed in partnership with the curators of CASACOR — the FGMF arrived at a design that respects the architecture imagined by David Libeskind , author of Conjunto Nacional, and maintains the current state of the structure in view . “It is an open-plan, modular space, marked by pillars, with signs of time and previous uses,” explains Gimenes. “We thought of a delicate intervention , capable of highlighting the rawness of this scenario, preserving the concrete ribs and to immerse the visitor in the original project ”, he says. Inside the existing shell, the idea is to distribute boxes (some of them elevated, appearing to float), inside and outside which the exhibition environments will take shape. (Ulisses Agnelli/CASACOR)
The circulation will follow, in part, the logic already outlined by Libeskind when he positioned the ramp, elevators and escalators in the center of the floor, and the useful areas, on the perimeter. In other words, the route will have a ring shape . “It will also be possible, at times, move from one environment to another. Along the way, users will also find several breathing points , where they can rest, contemplate the space and observe the unusual proportion of the ceiling height, which can reach 5 meters ”, says Gimenes. “It will be a kind of time travel.” Opened to the public in 1956, the ground floor of Conjunto Nacional stands out for its generous relationship with its surroundings . In the block delimited by Avenida Paulista, Alameda Santos and Rua Augusta and Rua Padre João Manoel, the block houses a shopping arcade, with stores, restaurants, bookstores and a movie theater. “The project brings important lessons about integration with the city,” says Gimenes. Among them are mixed use, the feeling of being an extension of the street , provided by the internal flooring made of Portuguese stones, the same as the sidewalk, and permeability, which allows pedestrians to cross the building from one block to another. “ The flow is intelligent and all paths converge to access the other floors : the ramp, the escalators and the elevators”, he explains. Visitors to CASACOR will arrive at the exhibition amidst this welcoming atmosphere, of belonging to urban life . (Salvador Cordaro/CASACOR)
“For us, it is a privilege to engage with a work so fundamental to the history of São Paulo. The Conjunto Nacional epitomizes the modernist corollary ,” says the architect. However, more than just paying homage to a specific architectural project, the implementation outlined by the FGMF expresses the idea that we need to learn from the past instead of discarding it. “Culturally, Brazil is fascinated by new things. We tend to erase what came before and waste unnecessary energy and resources, because we always build from scratch.” , says Gimenes. “ Our intention is to show that the old and the new can coexist .” CASACOR Service Sao Paulo 2022
When: July 5th to September 11th, 2022
Where : Conjunto Nacional – Paulista Avenue, 2073.
R$ 80 (Tuesday to Friday) – Full R$ 40 (Tuesday to Friday) – Half price R$ 100 (Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays) R$ 50 (Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays) – Half price* Purchase of half-price tickets – Elderly people aged 60 and over – Student presenting valid document with photo or payment receipt – PCD and their companion (according to law 12.933/13) – Public and private school teacher, presenting a valid document with photo * Proof of half-price entry will be required at the door
