Space, Material, and Learning
At MEDIOMUNDO, Marta Pelegrín and Fernando Pérez understand architecture as a process of research and constant dialogue with both context and history. Recently, together with students and professors from the University of Frankfurt, we had the opportunity to revisit the Faculty of Architecture designed by João Vilanova Artigas (1961) in São Paulo—an iconic work that continues to inspire new ways of inhabiting and designing.
The building is organised around a large central covered atrium, generating a continuous sequence of open spaces and varied scales. The simple and expressive concrete structure not only defines the materiality of the whole, but becomes the architecture itself: structure and space are one and the same, and the geometry of the form marks the turning point between matter and void.
This experience reinforces our belief in the importance of learning from architectural references, observing how architecture can generate community and encounter, and how the essential principles of the discipline remain relevant and open to new interpretations.
