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.
This interior perspective view of the first floor of the Livraria da Vila bookstore depicts the public café area in the foreground and lined bookshelves in the background. The high level of finish suggests that this is a presentation drawing. Presentation drawings are used by architects to convey ideas and concepts to their client. Weinfeld wanted to create an open plan environment for the bookstore in order to facilitate circulation. This design is evidence of that intention; drawn from the perspective of the viewer standing against the back wall of the store, the whole length of the building is visible.
These drawings are particularly significant to the Collection as they mark the V&A’s first acquisition of a South American architect's work.
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.
This interior perspective view of the first floor of the Livraria da Vila bookstore depicts the public café area in the foreground and lined bookshelves in the background. The high level of finish suggests that this is a presentation drawing. Presentation drawings are used by architects to convey ideas and concepts to their client. Weinfeld wanted to create an open plan environment for the bookstore in order to facilitate circulation. This design is evidence of that intention; drawn from the perspective of the viewer standing against the back wall of the store, the whole length of the building is visible.
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, yellow coloured pencil and grey and blue felt tip pen on tracing paper |
| Brief description | Interior perspetive view of the Livraria da Vila bookstore in Sao Paulo, by Isay Weinfeld, 2007 |
| Physical description | Highly finished interior perspective view of the first floor of the Livraria da Vila bookstore, rendered with pencil, yellow coloured pencil and grey and blue felt tip pen on tracing paper. The design drawing depicts the public café area in the foreground and the commerical bookstore in the background. A charcoal grey chalkboard on the left in the café bears the white representative scribbles of a menu; a sink and tap is situated below. There are three chairs lined up on the right, tucked underneath a counter top with a row of bookshelves above. A human figure is positioned next to the waist-height bookshelves just beyond the café, through the double width doorway. |
| Dimensions |
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| 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. This interior perspective view of the first floor of the Livraria da Vila bookstore depicts the public café area in the foreground and lined bookshelves in the background. The high level of finish suggests that this is a presentation drawing. Presentation drawings are used by architects to convey ideas and concepts to their client. Weinfeld wanted to create an open plan environment for the bookstore in order to facilitate circulation. This design is evidence of that intention; drawn from the perspective of the viewer standing against the back wall of the store, the whole length of the building is visible. 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.708-2014 |
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| Record created | July 18, 2014 |
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