DESIGN
São Paulo's Firma Casa
Architects and designers have long been fans of the flexibility aluminium gives them.
23 August, 2016
Strong, lightweight, and highly adaptable, aluminium allows for incredibly creative building exteriors.
For example, here's a good chance that if you want to buy a vase inside Brazil's Firma Casa, there probably is one among the objets d'arts inside the São Paulo furniture store. What you might not expect until you visit is that the entire exterior of the shop, roof and walls alike, is clad in 3,500 aluminium vases filled with plants.
This environmentally friendly twist on living walls and a green roof was designed by Campana Brothers, in partnership with the SuperLimão Studio, for a striking look on the 952 square meter site in an arts district of the Brazilian city. The two firms were hired by Firma Casa owner Sonia Diniz Bernardini, who put her faith in these up-and-coming teams and their ability to deliver an elegant yet eco-friendly design.
This environmentally friendly twist on living walls and a green roof was designed by Campana Brothers, in partnership with the SuperLimão Studio, for a striking look on the 952 square meter site in an arts district of the Brazilian city. The two firms were hired by Firma Casa owner Sonia Diniz Bernardini, who put her faith in these up-and-coming teams and their ability to deliver an elegant yet eco-friendly design.
Images: SuperLimão Studio
Deliver they did. The angular, dagger-shaped vases spike across the roof in rows, leaving space for the air conditioning ducts and lighting, and then continue their journey down each of the two-story walls. On the first floor is the high-end gallery space and the retail operation, with office space above, all with an industrial feel that the designers wanted to extend. They keep that continuity with the external cladding and complement it with the arresting, angular origami art that the aluminium vases create.
Within each vase is at least one snake plant, a common household plant elsewhere in the world that has a special meaning in Brazilian culture. Known as Sansevieria Trifasciata by its Latin bonatical name, the Espada-de-São-Jorge (St. George's sword) is native to tropical West Africa but has a long history in Brazil.
Within each vase is at least one snake plant, a common household plant elsewhere in the world that has a special meaning in Brazilian culture. Known as Sansevieria Trifasciata by its Latin bonatical name, the Espada-de-São-Jorge (St. George's sword) is native to tropical West Africa but has a long history in Brazil.
Image: Maíra Acayaba
That history is rooted in the same superstition: the plant has healing properties and is used to protect against spirits (or ward off the "evil eye") in African societies, with that same connotation extended to St. George.
Image: Wikipedia
The plants are as spiky as the aluminium vases, and 9,000 seeds were initially planted to fill the vases. While the Firma Casa project intentionally connects with the natural role of plants in Brazil's oft-exotic history, the roof and walls point to the future with this culturally infused interpretation of a green roof. As just one example, the vases on the roof (along with those in the living-wall cladding) offer tourists to the nearby museum and shops and residents alike a glimpse into how locally sourced food might be grown in similar systems.
The vases are connected by a wire grid and then suspended from the building façade using sturdy rebar. An innovative drainage system means that water drips from one vase to the next in a cascade before entering the ground, ensuring that water resources are used in smart, sustainable ways. That's also true of the pavement and courtyard, which are treated so that they are permeable and reduce water runoff.
The snake plants in their lightweight aluminium vases also are visible from the inside, where windows high on the wall meet the interior roof line. The effect works with the industrial interior décor, while simultaneously allowing natural light to filter into the gallery space and store. The living wall and roof provide insulation against both heat and cold, while the aluminium meets the climate challenge in the tropical Brazilian environment. From the street, the entire design serves to frame the Firma Casa itself, so that the busy geometry of the hive-like vases don't distract so much as they direct the eye toward the windows and pull attention inside.
Echoing Brazil's longstanding embrace of aluminium sustainability, this showcase design is a winner in more ways than one.
The vases are connected by a wire grid and then suspended from the building façade using sturdy rebar. An innovative drainage system means that water drips from one vase to the next in a cascade before entering the ground, ensuring that water resources are used in smart, sustainable ways. That's also true of the pavement and courtyard, which are treated so that they are permeable and reduce water runoff.
The snake plants in their lightweight aluminium vases also are visible from the inside, where windows high on the wall meet the interior roof line. The effect works with the industrial interior décor, while simultaneously allowing natural light to filter into the gallery space and store. The living wall and roof provide insulation against both heat and cold, while the aluminium meets the climate challenge in the tropical Brazilian environment. From the street, the entire design serves to frame the Firma Casa itself, so that the busy geometry of the hive-like vases don't distract so much as they direct the eye toward the windows and pull attention inside.
Echoing Brazil's longstanding embrace of aluminium sustainability, this showcase design is a winner in more ways than one.