Jacobsen Arquitetura

Created by Paulo and Bernardo Jacobsen, Jacobsen Arquitetura today is a point of reference in the development of projects in dialogue with nature, without pre-conceived forms and in touch with its clients’ intentions and desires.

Paulo Jacobsen was Claudio Bernardes’ partner during 25 years in the Claudio Bernardes e Jacobsen architectural firm. Subsequently, with Thiago Bernardes, Claudio’s son, he created Bernardes + Jacobsen. In 2012, Jacobsen already had a depth of experience involving over 800 projects in various sectors, including high quality residential architecture, and the international experience of his son, Bernardo Jacobsen, who had worked with architects such as Christian de Portzamparc, in Paris, and Shigeru Ban, in Japan. Thus was Jacobsen Arquitetura born, which currently is developing approximately 60 projects with a team of 35 professionals divided between the offices of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Over the years, the work of the firm has been refined, emphasizing a close relationship with nature in favor of the concept of true sustainability. Projects carried out in Rio, especially in regions of beaches or islands, working with natural materials, make extensive use of elements such as luminosity, transparency, fluidity of space and structural lightness. Through this proposal, a concept of Brazilian architecture was being established through the re-appropriation of modernism in dialogue with colonial and indigenous roots.

With the opening of the office in São Paulo, the architects innovated to adapt these concepts to the urban space. Research into new languages incorporated an architecture of pure elements, proposing a contact between nature and its materials with a technological proposal, oriented by sustainability.

In 2013, the firm extended its expertise in public spaces, completing a project for expansion of the Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro. The architects’ design was capable of unifying two very different buildings, forming a cohesive whole and kicking off the revitalization process for city’s port area. After completion, the Museum project was chosen as one of the 100 most important of the year by the prestigious Architecture Now publication launched by Taschen.

The “tropical architecture” concept led to the expansion of the international activities of Jacobsen Arquitetura, with jobs in Portugal, Morocco, Qatar, the Caribbean, Fiji and Australia. Currently, the firm is working on some 15 projects abroad.

Paulo Jacobsen has published three books, among them Claudio Bernardes & Paul Jacobsen (Editora Capivara), which recounts the history of the duo’s work career. His professional experience also was the subject of studies such as that produced by Evelyse Grunow, Bernades Jacobsen (Editora Viana & Mosley). Jacobsen was voted one of the 100 most important architects in the world by Architectural Digest magazine in 2001 and one of the 100 most influential designers in the world by Wallpaper magazine, in 2011. In addition to the international experience, which includes work on the Centre Pompidou in Metz, in France, Bernard Jacobsen worked, in Brazil, on projects such as the City of Arts in Rio de Janeiro. And, in 2013, he was invited to participate in the New Nine-Emerging Architecture from Brazil exhibition, held at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt Germany.