Initially focused on single-family houses before expanding to hotels, offices, boutiques and apartment buildings, São Paulo-based Marcio Kogan, one of Brazil’s leading contemporary architects and founder of the award-winning studio mk27, discusses his approach to sustainability and some of his signature projects.
One-bedroom water villa at Patina Maldives, Fari Islands
How does your work speak of what is happening in the world as it modernizes, with an increasing demand to meet local needs of sustainable development in the face of growing environmental problems and a shortage of natural resources? Do you have a philosophy of building “green” and do you consciously take into account the impact of your buildings on the environment, or are you more concerned about building something that serves and inspires people and transforms communities?
We always seek to be more sustainable. For us, sustainability reflects a cultural broadening, an improvement of values and an understanding of our impact upon spaces – the environment itself. From an evolutionary perspective, we have learned how to take shelter, to build, to improve construction methods and, more recently, we have reached a point where we can design and build looking towards the future. We can transform our environment, our space, considering the preservation of natural resources, which results in our own preservation and, potentially, in our evolution. The use (as much as possible) of wood, which is low-emission and an easily renewable natural resource, combined with the production of clean energy, such as photovoltaics, is a key tool to reducing carbon emissions and collaborating with the global warming reduction target set at COP 21 in Paris in 2015.
Describe the unique features and challenges you faced on the following projects: MiCasa Vol. C, Ramp House, Gama Issa House, Paraty House and Microbiology Museum at the Butantan Institute.
Each project has its special features. For example: for MiCasa Vol. C, which belongs to a super modern client, we experimented with the use of wood; for Paraty House, the clients asked for a house that stood out against nature and didn’t mimetize it. There was also the challenge regarding its access, since it was cut off by the sea, and we decided, together with the engineering team, to build it in concrete, which was eventually the best constructive option. Gama Issa was one of the first opportunities I had of working with esthetically sophisticated clients: Alexandre Gama owns an important advertising agency and Claudia Issa is an exceptional art director. The Microbiology Museum was an adaptation of a pre-existing building in an important scientific center. Ramp House was the first case where the owners were more perfectionist than the mk27 team, which already suffers from OCD.
MiCasa Vol. C minimalist pavilion that completes the existing furniture store complex in São Paulo
What was the main idea that you were trying to achieve with the Patina Maldives?
Lelé, one of the least famous brilliant Brazilian architects, once said: the role of architecture is to avoid disaster. In the Maldives’ sand, skies and ocean, all architecture can do is humbly filter the light, frame the views and create different narratives as one strolls around the magnificent surroundings.
Which three of your latest projects do you feel are most representative of who you are as an architect and your architectural philosophies and ideas? Please explain why.
I really like the Patina hotel project. And the most interesting thing is that my three favorite projects from the pandemic year were refused by the clients. We may have overdone it.
