About
Estúdio Gustavo Utrabo manifests itself through a sensitive look at the world. Our path crosses unpredictable spaces, untold stories and yet non-existent landscapes, allowing us to continuously exercise our thinking, as well as our architectural practice.
We propose to expand the architectural field by imagining spaces with poetic sensibility and constructive quality, based on critical reflection towards the transformation of society and stimulated by perennial research.
Our research is allied to educational practice, making it possible for us to mediate and debate diverse themes, even those that seem less important to architecture, but appear to be essential to us. It is from these places that we invent ways of coexisting and from where, together with our network of collaborators, we find ways to face contemporary challenges.
If a community in the Xingu Indigenous park presents us with human challenges in facing nature's inconstancy, a campus in São Paulo makes us see the hidden layers of the city, and a school in Tocantins teaches us how to properly look at the collective. This shows that our practice is not defined by scale, form, materiality, or use, but in its sensitive journey alongside the people and their territories.
Despite our plural performance, the fact that we have received great awards and honors as Riba International Prize, given lectures, and extensively published our projects as in the El Croquis Monograph magazine, the studio is not restricted by gains or territorial limits, but by the positive impact that its projects generates in the communities and clients with whom it relates. It is by this approach that we propose learning about different ways of acting, together.
Art, engineering, and society are constitutive parts of our practice. If one drives the imagination and the others make dreams possible, it is through this constant exchange that our performance finds its ground and makes our way to see, act and coexist in the world.
Awards
RIBA International Prize Winner 2018.
RIBA Emergent Architect Prize 2018.
"Awarded to the most transformative building which demonstrates visionary, innovative thinking, excellence of execution, and makes a distinct contribution to its users and physical context."
Centre Pompidou — Permanent Collection.
- 'Knight of the Order of Rio Branco' distinction, for services provided to Brazilian architecture
- Lafarge Holcim Awards – Silver Medal for Latin America
- Terrafibra Award
- First place – Closed competition for the WPP Campus in São Paulo
- Finalist in the Harvard Wheelwright Award
- Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel Finalist; Contemporary Architecture Award
- Highly Commended Office – Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award
- RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) International Prize
- RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) International Emerging Architect Award
- Archdaily Building of the Year
- Archdaily Brasil – Work of the Year
- Finalist in the Mies Crown Hall Americas Emerge Award – IIT College of Architecture Chicago
- Third Place in the Oscar Niemeyer Prize for Latin American Architecture
- Harvard Wheelwright Award Finalist
- American Architecture Prize – Social Housing
- Winner of the AMATA Ibramen Award for the best wooden building
- Winner of the Saint-Gobain Sustainability Award
- Winner of the Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel
- APCA Award (Paulista Association of Art Critics) – Category: Architecture in Brazil
- Finalist Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel; Contemporary Architecture Award
- Honorable Mention – Health Unit Competition in Brasília
- First Place in the National Competition: Central Roof of the Florianópolis Public Market
Exhibitions / Lectures
- International Congress of Architecture in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico
- "MON without Walls – Artists who conquer the gardens of MON" at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba
- "Paranauê" exhibition at Praça Adolpho Bloch, in São Paulo
- BAQ 2022 – The XIII edition of the Pan American Architecture Biennial of Quito, Ecuador
- Royal Academy Summer Exhibition by The Royal Academy of Arts in London, England
- Potential Laubholz by ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Clemson University in South Carolina, United States
- IIT College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, United States
- Exhibition "Imaginar o Real" at Galeria Soma, Curitiba
- Exhibition "Zona da Mata" at MAM SP and MAC USP, São Paulo
- Exhibition at BAL 2021 – Latin American Biennial in Pamplona, Spain
- Installation at the Seoul Biennale in Seoul, South Korea
- Solo exhibition at Galeria Soma, in Curitiba
- Emerging Voices Brazil Panel at IIT College of Architecture – Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, United States
- OpenRCR by RCR Arquitectes
- Permanent Collection of Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris, France
- Days of Oris 19 by Oris House of Architecture in Zagreb, Croatia
- Design Methods Spring Discussion Series by The University of Hong Kong
- Lecture at Mao Museum in Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Lecture at Harvard GSD with the research: From Extraction to Growth: A Concreteless Project
- Lecture at IIT College of Architecture Chicago – Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, United States
- Participation in the Brazilian pavilion at the Venice Biennale
- Lecture at FAU-USP
Publications
- The best architecture interviews of 2022 by Archdaily Brasil
- El Croquis Monograph 207 – Estúdio Gustavo Utrabo
- TerraFibra, published by Pavillon de l'Arsenal
- Immeasurable Shadow, published by Hong Kong University Press
- The best architecture of the 21st century by The Guardian
- The Architectural Review no. 1466
- The Architectural Review no. 1465
- Oris Magazine n.119
- PLOT n. 51
- DETAIL – Germany
- L'Arca International Magazine n. 148 – Monaco
- C3 Special – South Korea – Spaces for Children
- d'Architectures – France
- Ecologik n. 58 – France
- PROJECT no. 442
- Summa+ n. 164 – Argentina
- PLOT n.41 – Chile
- Casabella n. 877 – Italy
- Mark n. 69 – Netherlands
- PROJECT no. 437
- Magazine AU Architecture and Urbanism
- Kennicott, Philip. "Imagining a city on the fly." Washington Post, Washington DC, 09 November 2011.
- Wallpaper Born in Brazil. London: Tony Chambers, 1996–2022.
Team
Gustavo Utrabo graduated in Architecture and Urbanism at UFPR in 2010. He contributed to lectures and other performances at institutions such as Harvard GSD, IIT Chicago, University of Hong Kong, Future Architecture Platform at the MAO museum in Ljubljana, RIBA in London and FAU-USP in São Paulo, among others. Gustavo was a visiting professor at IIT Chicago, the MA program at the University of Hong Kong and an assistant. For six years Gustavo Utrabo was a founding partner of Aleph Zero, leading the main projects carried out by the firm.
- Henrique Seckelr
- Nathan Schellings
- Leonardo Triniello
Contact
Thank you for your interest in working with us. Résumés and portfolios are accepted by email. Due to the volume of applications received, we regret that we are unable to respond to all candidates.
Rua São João Batista, 103
Cambuci – São Paulo, Brazil
01527-010
+55 11 30061-1389