Southern Charm

While Americans have always been aware of, and taken an interest in, emerging contemporary trends from Europe and the minimalist tradition in Asia, South America’s interior design style generally doesn’t garner much attention on the American radar screen. However, Brazil has plenty to share when it comes to unique design ideas that blend natural inspirations, rich colors and high-tech amenities.

Casa Cor is a perfect primer to the substance of Brazilian style. The franchised super showhouses appear in 13 major cities in Brazil including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the country’s capital, Brasilia. The concept has been expanding to other countries with branches in Lima, Peru and its most recent expansion in Sweden.

Charged with designing certain rooms for Casa Cor (called ambientes or “environments”), 67 designers from Brazil created everything from a stylish public bathroom and modern loft-style kitchen to a complete restaurant and an open-air garden space.

Ultimately, the layout of Casa Cor São Paulo was like much of Brazil itself: expansive, stylistically diverse and full of surprises. Held this year between May 29 to July 9 in the sprawling Jockey Club complex, the São Paulo event is the flagship of the enterprise, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Under the Influence

To pinpoint Brazilian trends is to learn a lesson in the history and character of the Brazilian people, citizens of a country shaped by diversity. The landscape of its countryside has a noticeable impact as well: At turns lush and ripe in the Amazon River basin, Brazil is increasingly plastered over by the ever-expanding concrete highways of its major cities like São Paulo, a sprawling metropolis with one of the highest population densities in the world.

A city of around 16 million people, São Paulo has significant populations of Italians, Portuguese, Japanese, Spaniards, Lebanese, Germans, Chinese, Armenians, Greeks, Koreans and Jamaicans, among others. With this unusually diverse blend of cultures, the city has the distinct feel of being stylistically indistinct, much the way New York is, without one culture having a noticeably bigger impact than any other. Instead, all of the influences work together to form a singularly Brazilian style.

That resulting style is a stunning blend of contemporary minimalism with a warmth of color and detail that is Latin American in flavor, with a touch of Brazil’s own natural beauty.

Outdoor areas at Casa Cor, including Caterina Poli-Sergio’s terrace garden, are crafted with a nod toward the designs that nature provides, and this trend continues in the interior realm, as well.

Wood is ever-present in the designed interior spaces, whether it’s in a contemporary spa bath, a child’s room, or a café seating area. Wood panels on walls provided contrast for bolder colors; earth tones were often paired with black, white or a solid primary color to make a bold statement. Some, like designer Fernanda Marques’ open loft-style apartment, used wood on the walls to make features such as a sweeping white solid surface staircase stand out.

While the styles of the rooms tend more toward a tropical airiness than any kind of traditional European look, the contemporary lines from the continent show through in several of the kitchens, keeping lines smooth while incorporating texture into seating areas and distinctive pairings of wood and stainless steel countertops.

Jorge Elias’ sitting room manages to incorporate traditional Victorian-style furniture with custom frames and millwork packed with seashells, nodding to Brazil’s nearly 5,000 miles of shoreline.

Serene Scenes

Unlike the urbanized Spanish and Italians who use their homes predominantly for sleeping, Brazilians have a Latin American sense of family and they design even the most avant garde spaces in their homes to live in. Paulistanos have a particularly active nightlife; the average dinnertime is about nine o’clock and some hot spots keep roaring throughout the night. Back at home, though, luxury and serenity are the design themes, particularly in the bath.