LOCATION: Rua do Lago, 876, Butantã, Sao Paulo – SP, Brazil
ARCHITECT: Vilanova Artigas with Carlos Cascaldi
DATES: 1966-1969
NOTES:

Site Visit(s): Tues Mar 19, Mon Mar 24, Fri Mar 28  2014

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Time and time again, I am reminded that these buildings are not static entities – in fact far from it.  They are aging, changing objects; enduring decades of use and weather.

Nowhere more so did I feel that than at Artigas’s Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU – USP).  In my preliminary research, I had read accounts of deterioration of the roof and extensive leaking but was not expecting to discover the building in such a state.

In historic photos of the building, one of its most prominent features is always its roof: an impressively extensive grid of skylights; a curtain wall turned canopy. But today, the roof is obscured – wrapped from beneath.

Though it was clearly intended as only a temporary measure, there was something rather captivating about this tarp overlay. Its billowy silhouette and blue hue complemented the stark geometries of the warm taupe tones of the original concrete.
 

Despite the stopgap intervention for the roof’s failings, there is an undeniable resilience about the building – it feels like a true “knock-around” kind of place. The layers of chalk and graffiti that coat its walls only add to its character instead of making it appear tired and worn.