São Paulo – After spending four years designing houses, shops and palaces in the Arab countries, the São Paulo state-born architect Vincenzo Visciglia is getting ready to arrive in São Paulo in the first week of October. He is bringing new plans in his luggage: in the first half of 2015, Visciglia is set to open two units of cafeteria and restaurant chain PappaRoti in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. During the same period, the cities should also become home to stores of his custom clothing brand Aavva. His plans for Brazil include a contract to launch a jewellery collection and decoration projects.
“I decided to come back because I want to be closer to Brazil, and because I have a few innovative proposals that value the Arab lifestyle,” the architect has told ANBA. The restaurant chain was established in Malaysia but, according to Visciglia, the original concept was a bakery and the flagship product was (and still is) a caramelized sweet bread.
“When I went to Dubai, they hired me to reposition their brand and rework their stores’ concept,” he said. Now, PappaRoti has 227 stores and kiosks throughout the Emirates and Asia, and plans on opening units in Europe and Africa. According to the architect, the first two stores in Rio and São Paulo will be owned by the brand, but he is in talks to open franchises in Brazil.
Another project is to open stores of the high-end custom clothing brand Aavva, which he founded with an Arab partner. “Aavva is the apple of my eye. It’s where I get my inspiration from, where I make daring new creations. The clothes are custom-made and almost all of them are handmade,” he said. In addition to clothing, the stores in Brazil will carry furniture with unique design. “The products’ designs are based on the Arab style,” he said.
Other opportunities
Upon returning to Brazil, Visciglia may strike further deals – one with a restaurant chain and another with a jewellery store. The architect said he does not plan on stopping working with interior decoration and corporate clients. On the contrary, he intends to keep his Arab clients and get more orders in Brazil. There are projects of his underway at properties in the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen, among other Middle East countries.
“I have an office in Dubai and my personnel will go on working here. They are familiar with my way of working and creating, and that helps. I plan on spending two months in Brazil and then two weeks here [in Dubai] to oversee the projects. But I also have orders in São Paulo and Brasília.”
The architect was born in Tatuí, 150 kilometres from the São Paulo state capital. He studied in Miami and lived in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the past four years. There, he created groundbreaking decoration projects for houses and palaces. One particular project involved a 50-square meter bathroom. Another featured crystal-studded paint on the walls. One of the bedrooms he designed and decorated spanned over 100 square metres. In between his projects, he took to designing commercial facilities, such as the PappaRoti restaurants, and visual communications for businesses.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
