São Paulo – Born in Vitória da Conquista, almost 520 kilometers away from the capital of Bahia, the 30-year-old Junior Andrade is spearheading two major architectural projects in Arab countries.
“Right now, we are working on the new Lamborghini showroom in Doha, Qatar, and a palace in Saudi Arabia. The palace came up first, in 2020 via Instagram, just before the pandemic hit. I’d never had an international client before, and expanding the business was my dream. We had an online meeting and the client briefed me on the concept.”
Shortly after the meeting, Andrade flew to Saudi Arabia to see the build site. His design includes a movie theater, two 17-meter-high fountains, a mosque, a lift connecting the parking area to the master suite, and a pool.
Andrade’s showroom design in Qatar is meant for a multi-brand dealer that carries high-end vehicles such as Bentleys and Bugattis, in addition to Lamborghinis.
Both projects are ongoing, and Andrade has since gotten requests from other Arab clients in Kuwait and Oman. “Back in 2020, we began to figure out the local bargaining culture. Now, I realize that Arabs enjoy negotiating. They enjoy sitting down for some coffee, just like Brazilians do. They’re different than American clients, for instance, who are often much more to the point,” says Andrade.
According to him, Arab clients will often take their time before signing off on a contract, after all they’re dealing with dreams. “Now that I’m close with Arab clients, they’ll even joke that I seem Arab because I enjoy negotiating so much.”
In order to better serve these clients, the architect set up an office in Dubai, in the UAE late last year. “In two years’ time, we plan on having a bigger structure out there. Right now, my company is based out of São Paulo and Bahia.”
Since doing his first international project in Saudi Arabia, in addition to his new Arab clients, Andrade has also received work proposals from Italy, the United States, Colombia, and South Africa. He ascribes the success and growth of his business to two factors: the pandemic, and his business acumen.
“Around that time, it dawned on people that home is the most important place in our lives. The household became a place in which to study, to work, to work out, to be with family, all at once.”
Once he picked up on the trend, Andrade took the leap and decided to expand. Capitalizing on the fact that everyone was using the internet to communicate, he decided to showcase his work, and this got him a new clientele around the world.
The architect’s history
Up until he was 17, Andrade had no clue he’d be an architect. Football, the greatest passion of Brazilians, was his first choice. Architecture came into his life when his mother embarked on a comprehensive home renovation, which matched Andrade’s creativity and his penchant for image editing software.
In 2016, years after graduating, Andrade decided to start his own business. The portfolio of JR Andrade Arquitetura runs the gamut from high-end residential buildings to simpler homes. In addition to covering 19 cities throughout Bahia, the company is active in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, Fortaleza, and Pernambuco.
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