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Architectural Drawing

2007 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Isay Weinfeld is an award winning Brazilian architect with over 30 years of architectural experience designing civic spaces, residential homes, commercial buildings, hotels and restaurants in Brazil and worldwide. This collection of architectural drawings for the Livraria da Vila bookshop in Sao Paulo is a good example of the architectural design process, showing both rough perspective plans as well as more highly finished interior schemes.

The architectural drawings were created for the Livraria da Vila bookshop in the prestigious Jardim Paulista area of Sao Paulo. As a result of the widely acclaimed structure, Weinfeld was commissioned to design two subsequent Livraria da Vila branches located around Brazil. Weinfeld’s design brief was to create a space that reflected the client’s belief that bookstores should be cultural hubs as well as places of commerce. To achieve this, Weinfeld incorporated into his scheme a small lecture auditorium, a café and a storytelling area for children.

One of the striking elements of the Livraria da Vila’s design is the pivoting glass-fronted, steel framed doors lined with books that form the entrance to the bookshop during opening hours. Weinfeld’s inspiration for this design element is said to be les bouquinistes, the Parisian second-hand booksellers that line the banks of the river Seine selling books beneath their green wooden awning boxes.

These drawings are particularly significant to the Collection as they mark the V&A’s first acquisition of a South American architect’s work.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Pencil and coloured pencil on tracing paper
Brief description
Lower ground floor plan for the Livraria da Vila bookstore in Sao Paulo, by Isay Weinfeld, 2007
Physical description
Lower ground floor plan for the Livraria da Vila bookstore, rendered in pencil and coloured pencil on tracing paper. Load bearing walls are highlighted in dark green coloured pencil. Portugese annotations denote the office space, lavatories, stock room and elevator. There is a rectangular block of light green coloured pencil at the bottom of the plan, almost the length of the building, representing the outside space.
Dimensions
  • Height: 17.5cm
  • Width: 49.7cm
Credit line
Given by Isay Weinfeld Studio
Subjects depicted
Association
Summary
Isay Weinfeld is an award winning Brazilian architect with over 30 years of architectural experience designing civic spaces, residential homes, commercial buildings, hotels and restaurants in Brazil and worldwide. This collection of architectural drawings for the Livraria da Vila bookshop in Sao Paulo is a good example of the architectural design process, showing both rough perspective plans as well as more highly finished interior schemes.

The architectural drawings were created for the Livraria da Vila bookshop in the prestigious Jardim Paulista area of Sao Paulo. As a result of the widely acclaimed structure, Weinfeld was commissioned to design two subsequent Livraria da Vila branches located around Brazil. Weinfeld’s design brief was to create a space that reflected the client’s belief that bookstores should be cultural hubs as well as places of commerce. To achieve this, Weinfeld incorporated into his scheme a small lecture auditorium, a café and a storytelling area for children.

One of the striking elements of the Livraria da Vila’s design is the pivoting glass-fronted, steel framed doors lined with books that form the entrance to the bookshop during opening hours. Weinfeld’s inspiration for this design element is said to be les bouquinistes, the Parisian second-hand booksellers that line the banks of the river Seine selling books beneath their green wooden awning boxes.

These drawings are particularly significant to the Collection as they mark the V&A’s first acquisition of a South American architect’s work.
Bibliographic reference
Barreneche, Raul A., 2012. Isay Weinfeld: projetos comerciais. Translated from Portugese by O. Nunes and L.Folgueira. Sao Paulo, Bei Comunicação.
Collection
Accession number
E.717-2014

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Record createdJuly 18, 2014
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