On our last morning in Montreal, Becky Quintal and I paid a short visit to the Canadian Center for Architecture bookstore just before heading to the airport. Even though we spent a whole week inside CCA’s building, we left a visit to what is one of the best architecture bookstores anywhere to the very last minute – on purpose, as we could only afford so many impulse purchases. I came in allowing myself to leave only with a few postcards, but couldn’t resist picking up Richard J. Williams’ Brazil: Modern Architectures in History. If only all impulse purchases were this gratifying. Read the rest of this entry »
On April 30th, graduates of the MFA Design Criticism inaugural class presented their thesis projects at Crossing the Line: the 2010 D-Crit Conference. I was the third to present, and in 9 minutes I talked about my research, findings and future ideas about Brazilian product and furniture design and social change.
More news on Alvorada coming up in the next few weeks.
During my first week in São Paulo last July, I couldn’t help but notice how so many residential buildings in São Paulo had their names set in the same typeface. I found it really intriguing, and it also reminded me of a blogpost architecture critic and D-crit teacher Alexandra Lange had written a few days earlier about house numbers in her Brooklyn neighborhood. I failed to take any photos of the said typeface during that week or on my second visit to the city. But when I came back to São Paulo last November, I made sure I took as many photos as I could of names, numbers and stylish building entrances in the Jardins and Higienópolis neighborhoods. There are a few more photos after the jump. For more, visit the set on my Flickr page. If you know what this typeface is or why it’s São Paulo’s typeface of choice, I’d love to find out. Feel free to comment or write me at frederico[at]05031979.net. Read the rest of this entry »
I saw the great, inspiring documentary “Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music” last night at the 92Y TRiBeCa. After the screening, director Guto Barra went up on stage for the Q&A.
I really appreciated when he said he didn’t want to restrict the film to the history of Brazilian music (from Carmen Miranda to Bossa Nova, from Tropicalismo to Baile Funk), but rather on how what David Byrne calls Brazil’s main export for decades has been influencing so many other creative expressions around the world.
