After meeting the Campanas at MAM we had a walk around the Ibirapuera Complex, went inside the Oca and Auditorium buildings and then got a cab to Unique, the fancy hotel designed by Ruy Ohtake. Paul stayed to talk to Ohtake, but I got picked up by Leo and we went back to Jardins. I needed to change my flight to Porto Alegre and Curitiba (yes) and get a Brazilian cellphone SIM card (no).

After walking down Óscar Freire street and catching the bus to Itaim Bibi (talk about three different São Paulos), I only managed to meet Rodrigo Almeida at his place well after 6h30pm. Rodrigo walked and talked me through some of his furniture work found in his living room, and then we sat down in two of his chairs and talked. For a really long time. I’m looking forward to seeing him again in Lisbon next month. Marca as passagens Rodrigo!

After a few days of Brazilian hardcore industrial design, it was great to switch gears and meet another kind of designer. First, a guided visit by Fernando and Humberto Campana to the show they curated, “Jardim de Infância” (Kindergarten) a selection of artworks from MAM‘s, (the Modern Art Museum of São Paulo) collection. Humberto left for a dentist appointment, but after we visited the Burle-Marx retrospective I later had lunch at the museum’s great restaurant with some of MAM’s staff and also Paul Makovsky and Roberto Cocenza, who kindly arranged for our meet-up. Valeu Beto!

… and yesterday I actually went to SESC. I spent a good two hours there with Paul Makovsky, part of which guided by Nelson Tapias. It made our day. More photos on my flickr account.

To get to the MOB conference venue, the Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco in the neighborhood of Lapa, I’ve been taking the bus form Avenida Paulista to Terminal da Lapa. On the way is Lina Bo Bardi’s iconic SESC Pompéia. I’ve seen it every morning for the past two days, and I’ll see it again in a few minutes (I’m already late).

Yesterday’s most memorable talk at the MOB Design Conference was given by Susan Andrews of the Visão Futuro Institute, a non-profit based in the state of São Paulo dedicated to the study and promotion of happiness. There was a whole panel of the conference dedicated to the study of happiness and GHP, or Gross Happiness Product – in Portuguese, Felicidade Interna Bruta. Quite appropriate in our “Post-Economic” era, too. Brazil was said to be a country with highly valuable human (and happiness) capital, and an inspiration for the rest of the world (following the world’s own kingdom of happiness, Bhutan). Susan Andrews is also organising the next world conference on happiness, to take place in November in Foz do Iguaçu. Other speakers on the panel spoke of how GDP is a wrong index to measure progress, of the symbolic and intangible nature of design and culture, and of what really makes us happy (not stuff, but healthy, lasting human connections).

Later in the day, I attended the opening for Patrick Jouin’s retrospective exhibition at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake called “Patrick Jouin’s Paris”. Talk about a change of scenery and tone. While his work undoubtedly makes people happy, there was no “post economy” discourse there. Lots of crystals, sleek furniture (including his remarkable rapid prototyping pieces), a concept room for W Hotels (shot after the opening by my friend Leonardo Finotti, who I’m staying with here in São Paulo, the reason we only left the Institute well after 1am), a house in Kuala Lumpur, restaurants for Alain Ducasse (from the Eiffel Tower to Las Vegas) and the like. This exhibition, like Jouin’s work, is “pre-post economic era” design – French style – at its best.