Lightness and Precision: Getting to Know Carla Juaçaba’s Work

Written by Camilla Ghisleni | Translated by Diogo Simões
Published on April 14, 2022

Technical precision combined with environmental concern and exploratory and investigative character make Carla Juaçaba one of the great representatives of Latin American architecture today. Carioca, born in 1976, Carla Juaçaba attended the University of Santa Úrsula and attributes much of her experimental and interdisciplinary style to this educational institution. It is not by chance that during her academic training her great inspiring masters were the architect Sergio Bernardes and the visual artist Lygia Pape, insinuating her interest in the multiple disciplinary branches that can compose architecture. In this sense, while still at graduation, Carla worked together with architect Gisela Magalhães, from Oscar Niemeyer’s generation, in scenography and expography projects.

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Despite the experimental aspect, which investigates the expanded field of architecture, soon after finishing her graduation in 2000, Carla started her own office and embarked on the path of residential projects, gaining notoriety for her technical resourcefulness and sensitivity in the analysis of the context. In each project, it is possible to see how the architect accurately assesses the natural aspects of the surroundings, trying to make the most of its potential, which often includes the use of local materials.

However, interdisciplinary works were part of her career, making her also known for designing installations and cultural works, such as the Humanidade2012 Pavilion at Rio +20 and the Chapel at 2018 Venice Biennale, both internationally awarded. In them it is possible to see the mastery of the different scales and programs, factors that, according to the architect, do not interfere in her way of designing. The question asked by her is always the same: “What makes sense to do here?”

The answer to this question is materialized in projects of simple shapes, composed of few elements, however, the result of precise calculations. They appear as if they always belonged to the place, in a lightness that borders on transparency and blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior.

Among the main awards in the architectural field, the first prize of the AREA - Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award 2018, for young professionals in the area, and the international award ArcVision Women and Architecture 2013, from Italy, which commends the architectural production of women and establishes her as an important professional example in a context dominated by men.

In addition to practical work, Carla has never left academic life, working in teaching and research at the universities of Harvard GSD, Columbia GSAPP and Mendrisio Accademia in Switzerland. The architect has also participated in art and architecture biennials and on two occasions, 2012 and 2019, she was a juror for the Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU) in Madrid.

Currently, the office is based in London and continues to be engaged in cultural and private projects, having as a partner since 2016 the architect Clovis Cunha. In addition to her projects, Carla is currently a PhD student at ETSAM-UPM-Madrid.

Discover some of the most important works of her career below.