5 -Star Reading September 2012

BeirutExperience Beirut’s cosmopolitan past with a walking tour through the city.

New YorkCelebrating five years of flights to New York, Oryx explores the entire Empire State.

بيروت استمتعوا باكتشاف تاريخ بيروت

متعدد الحضارات، عبر جولة ساحرة سيرًا على األقدام في مختلف أنحاء المدينة.

سبتمبر 2012نيويورك

احتفااًل بمرور خمس سنوات على تسيير رحالتنا إلى نيويورك، تصحبكم “المها”

الكتشاف الوالية اإلمبراطورية بأكملها.

architect

Perpetually the country of the future, the nation’s motto Ordem e Progresso (‘Order and Progress’) not only now seems viable, but inevitable and well deserved. As one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, today’s unprecedented buying power has been long-awaited. Real estate is buoyant. Much of Fernanda Marques’ business success can be attributed to the real-estate boom and her strategic partnerships with most of the major construction companies throughout Brazil.

Today, after decades progressing through military dictatorships on to democracy, enduring a wildly unstable inflationary economy, Marques says, “Brazil is finding its true identity. For so long, Brazilians‘ ‘high quality’ was only that which was imported” – the value conferred by the Hollywood culture factory and European taste brokers.

The world is beginning to see beyond the stereotypes of soccer and samba. Brazil is emerging as a serious global player in the business of creative enterprise, and a leading international force in design. A nation that often attributes shame to its mixed-race complexion,

Fernanda marques Words by matthias brendler

Brazil is a hopeful model for the rest of the world. If a pop musician like Gilberto Gil can become Minister of Culture, perhaps the office of Brazilian Design Ambassador is in the offing. Via numerous projects in Miami and New York, Marques already fits this role; for, as she imports no-nonsense best practices from ‘First World’ experiences, she brings a uniquely Brazilian charm to projects far from home.

Unlike many of her professional counterparts in architecture, Marques doesn’t identify a particular professional epiphany or moment that led her to a career in architecture. Instead, it was more of a steady magnetic pull,

increasing involvement in the field and, as she describes it, “a lifelong strong intuitive aesthetic sense and a natural passion for design and architecture” that unifies her work as a multidisciplinary designer and entrepreneur. Perhaps the absence of a marketing narrative creates an authenticity that attracts clients and fuels her success across diverse arenas of design. Still, though, marketing is key to the business of design. And in this regard, the importance of charisma or one’s personal brand cannot be overstated. Her warmth, professional gravitas, and business savvy are at the core of her brand.

Qatar Airways has

daily non-stop flights

from doha to São Paulo.

Rounding the corner onto Rua Ramos Batista in the Vila Olímpia neighbourhood, São Paulo, I was really hoping N˚198 was the right building. The luminous glass curtain walls glowed from between concrete slab floors; a pristine International-Style office tower rising 14 storeys above the ageing bricolage of low-rise urban sprawl.

“brazil is Finding its true identity. For so long, brazilians‘ ‘high quality’ was only that which was imPorted.”

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CHeF KITCHen And Lounge

Chef Kitchen and Lounge re-imagines

the quotidian role of the kitchen as it

celebrates and transforms it into the

engaging and entertaining hub of activity

it has become. Filled with surprises, this

design showcase was celebrated as one

of the highlights of the show Casa Trio,

held in São Paulo in october 2010.

This project translates the architect’s unique

and contemporary vision. “The importance

given to the kitchen in homes today deserves

design that is richer conceptually. We have

the tools to build kitchens with more

organic forms.”

www.qatarairways.com 77

architect

Zegna

The São Paulo office for the fashion house

Ermenegildo Zegna occupies an airy 480m2.

Completed in 2009, it reinforces Zegna's

clean sophistication and signature style.

A luscious balance of the restraint and

luxury, colours and materials were chosen

according to the firm's established style

guidelines. Interior spaces are integrated

through glass wall dividers.

BarBiZon A wooden bench runs the entire length of the living area, just beneath the tall

windows in this open-plan New York apartment. Both storage and seating, this humanistic

multipurpose design element is a Fernanda Marques trademark – a surface for displaying

works of art, magazines or a place just to sit and wonder. The space is designed to adapt

fluidly to the different activities of home life. The love/hate relationship with television

is resolved by a floor alcove that avoids disrupting the circulation of the open kitchen.

Brazil is leading the way in sustainable design, but the reality might just surprise you – it’s not about the rainforest. Here, sustainability is more about people than the emerging technology, advanced materials, low-impact tools, and greener processes. As in most of Latin America, the human element is the central factor in design.

What makes Brazil such an excellent case study for design and innovation is actually the scarcity of resources that fuels the creative imagination. And, while it’s easy to understand how facts like having the world's greatest biodiversity* might suggest otherwise, the real lesson for the rest of the world vis-à-vis sustainable design is about how to create spaces for deepening the enjoyment of life and fostering shared experiences with other people.

Created for the Casa Cor 2010 exhibit, Marques’ Sustainable Home feeds off these qualities. In terms of sustainability, when construction is smaller, it entails fewer resources, and lower energy consumption. Secondly, materials throughout are recycled (both inside and out), including the furniture and the great supporting pillars (of the Bahia tree).

In a culture where many Brazilian words are actually Arabic, and whole cities speak German, it’s not surprising that diverse people have found a way to coexist joyfully, genuinely desiring to be together as groups. To mix and match, integrate inside with outside, is what makes Brazilian design appealing and adaptable. With a keen focus on human usability and comfort,

a harmony between economic and empathic, this may be yet another path for sustainable design and one along which Fernanda Marques will surely light the way. www.fernandamarques.com.br

Source: * World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP-WCMC), 2004. Species Data (unpublished, September 2004).

RESUMÉ

Fernanda marques was

born and raised in São

Paulo and graduated

in 1988 from the

university of São

Paulo’s esteemed

Architecture and urban

design programme.

With an auspicious

beginning, she began

her career in

architecture with

modern Brazilian

master architect Jean

Carlo gasperini. In

1990, Fernanda marques

opened her own

practice, teaming up

with her sister and

business partner, Renata

marques Ruhman, who

holds an mBA from

Columbia university.

Twenty-two years and

more than 200 projects

later, Fernanda marques

Arquitetos Associados

(FmAA) has grown

into a vast business

with more than 100

employees and a

global clientele.

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