Superlimão 3D-Printed Pavilion Debuts at Inaugural Brazilian Architecture Biennial

Brazilian Architecture Biennial’s Pátio Metrópole in São Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park brings three pioneering pavilions to the outdoors. Each pavilion explores how traditional building knowledge can meet contemporary technologies.

The inaugural BAB exhibition pairs architecture with climate, materials, and regional identity. Visitors are invited to experience Brazil through a landscape of craft, precision fabrication, and sustainable design.

Curated by Leonardo Zanatta, the program is conceived as a cohesive park-wide experience. It tests transportability, scalability, and material innovation while remaining accessible to Brazilians from different regions.

Pátio Metrópole: three pavilions that bridge tradition and technology

The installations sit outside Oscar Niemeyer’s Pavilion of Brazilian Culture. Together, they form a triptych of experiments that reimagine local vernaculars through modern means.

Each pavilion interprets climate, topology, and resource streams in ways that could inform future practice in Brazil’s diverse environments.

Casa Superlimão

Casa Superlimão stands out for its use of 3D-printed concrete components, a technique still rare in Brazil. The forms are inspired by banana leaf stems, translating natural geometry into a modular, scalable envelope.

The pavilion features a reciprocal-support engineered-wood roof framing that creates an oculus. Wall sections use cobogó-style ventilation blocks and are clad with recycled PET wool for thermal comfort and acoustic performance.

The project highlights a low-embodied-energy fabrication approach. It shows how additive manufacturing and sustainable materials can work together with expressive design.

• 3D-printed concrete components with biomimetic geometry
• Reciprocal-engineered wood roof framing forming an oculus
• Ventilation: cobogó-inspired blocks
• Wall assemblies using recycled PET wool for insulation
• Biophilic, modular logic suited to Brazil’s climate and regional building culture

Casa Trussardi

Casa Trussardi draws on vernacular architecture from northern Brazil and adapts it into a modern construction system. The project uses taipa earthen cladding and a thatched roof to celebrate traditional materials.

It features a reclaimed-wood structure and earthen floor tiles that support low-carbon assembly and comfort. An external rammed-earth partition creates layers and shade, translating regional craft into a modern, transportable prototype.

• Taipa earthen cladding and thatched roof
• Reclaimed-wood structural system
• Earthen floor tiles for thermal mass
• External rammed-earth partition to delineate space

Casa Leve

Casa Leve, developed with Renault, explores demountable, lightweight construction. Its structure uses a cross-hatched marine-plywood reciprocal system wrapped in a high-performance tensioned composite membrane.

This combination allows for rapid assembly, reuse, and lightweight performance. The pavilion demonstrates that complex, high-performance envelopes can be built with accessible materials and simple assembly methods.

• Demountable, lightweight cross-hatched marine-plywood frame
• Reciprocal structure with a high-performance tensioned membrane
• Emphasis on transportability and rapid on-site assembly
• Collaboration with Renault to explore automotive-grade performance strategies applied to architecture

Impact, timetable, and a broader reading of Brazil

The BAB program frames architecture as a lens for reading Brazil through territory, materials, technology, and everyday life.

By presenting a trio of strategies—from 3D-printed concretes to vernacular taipa and demountable membranes—the biennial asks how spaces can be both legible to diverse Brazilian audiences and forward-looking in terms of sustainability.

The pavilions were designed to travel and adapt.

This encourages a discourse on material innovation and climate responsiveness that could influence future regional practice.

Brazilian Architecture Biennial runs from 25 March to 30 April, inviting a broader public to engage with architecture as a material, cultural, and environmental medium.

Pátio Metrópole serves as a testbed for the intersection of tradition and technology.

It demonstrates how Brazil’s climate, materials, and territorial conditions can inspire new architectural forms while maintaining local identity and regional craft.

The three pavilions offer practical case studies in sustainable fabrication, demountable construction, and vernacular adaptation for professionals, researchers, and students.

 
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