São Paulo – Brazilian architect and designer Guto Requena has put the Arab world in his plans after a visit to the Middle East last month. He participated in Design Days Dubai, a fair of collection and limited edition furniture and objects, which took place from March 18th to 21st in the emirate, and had one of his creations, chair Nóize, as its symbol. Apart from participating in the exhibition, Requena visited galleries and made contact with professionals in the sector, in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, which should generate future talks in universities and maybe event sales of products in galleries in da region.
“They have many design courses, and are much interested in the area,” said Requena, adding that there is also a chance of future works at universities in Qatar, which he made contact with during his trip. The Brazilian participated in Design Days Dubai through gallery Coletivo Amor de Madre, from the city of São Paulo, among a group of five designers. The choice of the chair as a symbol of the event took place after Coletivo Amor de Madre sent pictures of the works to be exhibited and the organizers saw the picture of the chair. As a symbol, the chair is part of the promotional material of the fair and was the centre of attention.
Nóize is different furniture, made using digital design. Requena used as his base for inspiration a chair from the 1970s, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, on which he made a digital model, which, on the computer, received five minutes of impact of the noise on Santa Ifigênia Street, an electronic product trade hub in the central region of São Paulo. For this reason, the name is Nóize, recalling the Noise musical style, in which the music is mixed with irritating sounds. It also brings to mind the word “noise”. The object was made through 3D printing, in polymer, in Belgium. The same process took place with another two chairs, also by renowned designers and also named “Nóize”, but it was the one inspired on Lina Bo Bardi’s that became a symbol.
Guto Requena chairs were exhibited in the Coletivo Amor de Madre space at the fair and the designer also gave talk “Design and Behaviour in the Digital Age – Panorama Brazil” in which he spoke about Brazilian design and digital culture, young Brazilian designers, cyberculture and some of his projects, among other themes. Requena is an urbanistic architect and has a master’s degree through the University of São Paulo (USP). His work is all turned to the digital work and interaction between people and the environment. Requena stated that he soon plans to return to the Arab world and aims to participate in projects in the region. He believes that joining academic experience and practice in the market should help.
Requena has an eponymous studio in São Paulo that operates with objects, interiors, buildings and cities, developing from residential and commercial projects to temporary spaces. Requena’s object of study is cyberculture and the impact of new technologies on architecture and design. He was a researcher at the Interactive Housing Study Nucleus at USP for nine years, as well as teaching design at Panamericana – Art and Design School and at the Instituto Europeo di Design, in graduate and post-graduate courses. Requena also presents and writes the screenplays of design program “Nos Trinques”, on GNT channel.
*Translated by Mark Ament
