Yesterday I managed to see three remarkably different versions of São Paulo:
1. Lunch at the Museu da Casa Brasileira, the place to go to see Brazilian furniture, applied arts and the gardens of the Fábio Prado mansion.
2. More books and general wonderment at Shopping Cidade Jardim, Brazil’s most exclusive (and dare I say beautifully executed by Arthur Mattos Casas) shopping mall, which includes a whole floor dedicated to Art&Design – an empty floor, but I guess the intention is there.
3. Chopps and more at Bar Brahma, a São Paulo classic in downtown. While the bar and its fenced terrace are delightful, its surroundings are somewhat bleak: homeless people and crackheads wonder the streets, alone or in groups. Some of downtown São Paulo’s blocks and streets are appropriately called “Cracolândia”. I wondered how long it will take for this area to become gentrified…

Along the way me and the Finottis met some friends, eventually sitting down together at Bar Brahma: first Domingos Pascali, an architect and associate of Isay Weinfeld, plus former fabricanti and product designer Brunno Jahara. No Sunday rest from Brazilian design.

Tags: Brunno Jahara, Domingos Pascali

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 2:53 pm and is filed under São Paulo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.