PARAMETRIC FACADES // JAPAN HOUSE SÃO PAULO

The building was formerly a bank located at Paulista Avenue, which is Sao Paulo’s city center. We repaired it by designing a wooden façade and the interior using washi (Japanese paper). Sao Paulo is a typical city of business in the world, but we added a place like a warm “house” for people to it.

The façade is made of wired Kiso hinoki cypress supported by carbon fiber, which was put together to express a forest that emerged in the big city. The main material in the interior is metallic mesh in washi style – an expanded aluminum metal soaked in liquefied paper mulberry. The combination of the traditional and the new material helped create a modern and transparent space that could convey another Japanese style.

The prototype contains a sample of 60 pieces fixed to a wooden frame.

The material used is MDF

the thickness of the material is 4 mm

a 600 x 600 mm piece was used to laser cut the pieces

Animation

Credits

JAPAN HOUSE SAO PAULO // LASER FABRICATION is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed in the Master of Advanced Architecture (MAA01) 2020/21 by Students: Rosamary Machado, Ali Abrar, Daniel Sorial and Faculty: Ricardo Mayor Luque, Lana Awad, and Shyam Zonca