Retail: The Latest Architecture and News

Brazilian architecture has produced interesting works in the business/retail area, often limited to just interior design. Recent works by Marcio Kogan, Marcelo Alvarango or Tao Arquitetura are good examples of a tradition that, in my personal opinion, has a peak at Mendes da Rocha’s Forma store in Sao Paulo. If you ever go to Sao Paulo to visit local architecture, don´t be afraid of your girlfriend/wife taking you to shopping, there´s lots to see there.

Leonardo Finotti shared with us an interesting project by local architect Isay Weinfeld that is up to this brazilian standard, the Libraria da Vila bookstore in Sao Paulo. An hermetic volume with a pivoting book facade contains an interesting space filled with books distributed over 3 levels as you can see on the photos:

Another fresh piece of brazilian architecture thanks to photographer Leonardo Finotti. The store was designed by Marcelo Alvarenga for Coven, a Brazilian brand of knitwear.

The store is based on a refurbishment of an existing 2-story house, wrapped around by a metallic mesh. As you can see on the below photos, the interiors have good lighting, despite the almost hermetic facade.

More photos by Leonardo Finotti and architect’s description after the break: