Raw: New Brazilian Architecture, LFA 2008 | 22 Jun – 18 Jul 2008

As part of the main programme of this year’s London Festival of Architecture, the Embassy of Brazil will host the exhibition RAW – New Brazilian Architecture, curated by the London-based Brazilian architect Ricardo de Ostos.

RAW aims to reveal emerging talents in Brazilian architecture through a display of recent projects shown alongside works by more established architects. The exhibition will also feature projects by architecture students from various Brazilian universities, who were encouraged to produce work in response to a brief formulated by the exhibition's curator. The exhibition will focus on buildings and spatial experimentations which dare to propose new visions and challenge the way Brazilians live. Can architects propose social change through basic spatial scripts, interdisciplinary partnerships and still communicate and bring architecture to a wider public?

Consequently, RAW will work less as a container of the national architectural production and more as a gateway for talented Brazilian designers to bring forward their unique achievements and prospective visions of the near future. In an age where social and political engagement seem increasingly more disentangled from the contemporary architect's agenda, the exhibition will open an essential field for debate.

Participating architects will include the Pritzker Prize Winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha (São Paulo), Brasil Arquitetura (São Paulo), Sérgio Roberto Parada (Brasília), Fernando Maculan/GALAPAGOS (Belo Horizonte), Igor de Vetyemy (Rio de Janeiro), Metro Arquitetura + Juliano Dubeux (Recife), NaJa-deOstos (London), and SUBdv - Franklin Lee/Anne Save de Beaurecueil (São Paulo and London).



SUBdV – Franklin Lee + Anne Save de Beaurecueil
Sonic Studio, São Paulo


Brasil Arquitetura
Museu Rodin Bahia, Salvador




Brasil Arquitetura
Museu do Pão, Ilópolis




Brasil Arquitetura
Museu do Pão, Ilópolis




Metro Arquitetura
Nox Club, Recife




Metro Arquitetura
Nox Club, Recife




Sérgio Parada
Brasília Airport redevelopment

'The architecture of Brazil is both strikingly distinctive from Latin America as a whole and marked by internal diversity. Often regarded as a reference in the history of Modernism, Brazilian architecture currently broadens the boundaries of traditional movements, and yet manages to draw inspiration from the legacy of its remarkable 20th century Modernist heritage.

RAW aims at presenting the contemporary practice of architecture throughout Brazil, both revealing emerging talents and celebrating well-established practices, featuring: Brasil Arquitetura and SUBdV - São Paulo, Fernando Maculan+Mariza Machado Coelho - Belo Horizonte, Sérgio Roberto Parada - Brasília, Igor de Vetyemy - Rio de Janeiro, Metro Arquitetura+Juliano Dubeux - Recife, and the London-based NaJa & deOstos. Consequently, RAW does not aspire to be a full survey of the national architectural production but a gateway for talented Brazilian designers to bring forward their unique achievements and prospective visions of the near future. All of the works on display are recent projects, either completed or processual. They include buildings and spatial experimentations which dare to propose new visions and challenge the way Brazilians experience the built environment.

In juxtaposition with the emerging landscape of up-and-coming Brazilian architects, the exhibition also honours the work of one of Brazil’s most celebrated contemporary architects, the Pritzker Prize winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha. In his recent ambitious project for a cultural complex in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Paulo Mendes da Rocha proposes a spatial intervention that both relates sympathetically to and contrasts with the natural environment of the site.

In an age when social and political engagement seems increasingly more detachedfrom the contemporary architect’s agenda, RAW opens a field for a cardinal debate:Can architects propose social change through basic spatial scripts and interdisciplinary partnerships whilst bringing architecture to a wider public?'

Ricardo de Ostos - curator

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For more information, please visit rawbrazil.wordpress.com