iffy architecture is a drawing and print series drawn from the construction of a school in São Miguel Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil for Instituto Nova União da Arte - NUA. The design and construction was a collaboration between Chibbernoonie, Studio Cruz, students from Faculdade de Arquitectura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo and Mackenzie Presbyterian University, and a local construction team.
The construction industry in Brazil has its roots in community-based builders informally trained in something called autoconstrução. The processes of autoconstruction inform Brazil’s entire built fabric, from single family favela homes to the most luxurious high rise developments. The techniques translate almost directly, albeit with a shift in scale.
Whether fully professional or community-based and informal, a general sense of brasilidade permeates the building process. It is characterized by a boldly precarious structural ambition; reuse, misuse, and improvisation; and a fantastic conglomeration of materials and structures that exist only during construction.
The drawing and print series explores some of the armatures and themes that emerged from the construction site in São Miguel Paulista, and relates them with some of the themes present in Brasilian architecture, along with a general sense of brasilidade.
Team: Owen Nichols, Marc Mascarello, Sigmund Lerner, Ernesto Cruz
