Gabriel Fernandes between craftsmanship, memory and the many Brazils we inhabit at CASACOR

Born and raised in Praia Grande, on the coast of São Paulo, Gabriel Fernandes found in architecture a way to investigate different ways of living and, at the same time, to value Brazilian handcrafting. Before graduating in Architecture and Urbanism and founding GF Estúdio 55, he began a Fashion course, but it was his lifelong closeness to his mother's handcrafted work that left one of the most lasting marks on his creative outlook.

Gabriel Fernandes - Casa Simonetto - Tributo a Janete Costa. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2026. (Denilson Machado, do MCA Estúdio/Divulgação)

This relationship gained new layers starting in 2020, when he created the Brasis que Vi project, a study on ways of dwelling in different regions of the country. The discoveries made throughout his travels began to permeate his projects, marked by the presence of popular art, handcrafting, Brazilian materials, and diverse cultural references, always interpreted through a contemporary language. In four participations at CASACOR, this research also found its place on new scales — and led the architect to the cover of the show's yearbook, selected as one of the most memorable projects in two editions.

Gabriel Fernandes - Casa Simonetto - Tributo a Janete Costa. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2026. (Denilson Machado, do MCA Estúdio/Divulgação)

At CASACOR São Paulo 2026, Gabriel presented Casa Simonetto – Tribute to Janete Costa, a 160 m² dwelling that pays tribute to the architect and designer from Pernambuco known for bringing architecture, design, and popular art together. Inspired by the theme Mind and Heart, the project brings together monumentality, symmetry, pau-ferro woodwork, hand-carved details, hand-loomed fabrics, and works linked to the universe of Janete Costa, placing Brazilian handcrafting at the center of the narrative. Below, Gabriel Fernandes talks about his trajectory, the research that shaped his work, and the paths behind his fourth participation at CASACOR.

1. What were the main challenges of participating in CASACOR 2026? And the main achievements accomplished since then?

Gabriel Fernandes: For this year, my project located on the top floor of the show carried, along with all the privileges, the difficulties as well. The handling of materials and the management of deliveries in a historic building (which requires very delicate attention and care so that the integrity of the heritage is maintained), on the highest floor of the building, was an additional concern.

As for the achievements, I think the result makes them quite clear. We had the honor of being on the cover of the CASACOR São Paulo yearbook this year, we were also awarded the cover of an international magazine and very significant media reach overall, which I consider very important on the scale of the work that we, at GF Estúdio 55, set out to do: the artisans are seen, the works are showcased, we manage to create prominence for the elements that highlight and value our culture and the creative power of our people.

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2. What was the most special element of your project at CASACOR São Paulo 2026?

GF: The Simonetto shelving unit, which we designed in natural Pau-Ferro wood with drawers hand-carved one by one by Nelinho (Rondinelly Santos), a very important artisan from Tiradentes, in Minas Gerais. We designed it precisely for this, to be the main element.

In addition to Nelinho's work having an aesthetic closely tied to Baroque, he talks about this revival of manual craftsmanship with great intensity – it's about the volume in the wood that he manages to bring into the third dimension with the subtlety that only the human hand can regulate with such preciousness. Nelinho's work speaks about our riches. It highlights our ancestries, and complements everything we believe to be the ideal for a promising future of valuing our own identity.

Another important point I need to highlight is the sofa fabric, produced by the Renato Imbroisi Institute in Muquém, also in Minas Gerais, a territory that experienced this revival of the hand loom technique through the designer who works developing craft communities and handmade works around the world. This specific piece was a development of mine with Renato, in a delicate plaid.

Gabriel Fernandes - Casa Simonetto - Tributo a Janete Costa. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2026. (Denilson Machado, do MCA Estúdio/Divulgação)

3. What did you discover by doing CASACOR that someone on the outside would never imagine?

GF: The importance of resilience within architectural projects. Architecture is a very broad discipline that has been part of our habitation in this universe since we consciously placed ourselves in this world; we sought shelter and went in search of meeting our needs that kept changing and evolving. That's how design emerged to solve the basic elements of our daily lives, and architecture to resolve our stay here.

After the basics were resolved, we began to seek to solve other needs, and they stopped merely fulfilling their initial role of conception and began to demand a series of criteria established by a bar that we set out to raise or grow every day.

If you are not willing to resist and reinvent yourself all the time to reach a result that is coherent with your own expectations, you will never reach a result that touches a CASACOR visitor, which is why I affirm that resilience was one of the main attributes that these four participations in the event brought me.

Gabriel Fernandes - Casa Veredas Simonetto. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2024. (MCA Estúdio/Divulgação)

4. How does your creative process work when designing a new project?

GF: My research on Brazilian culture is what guides everything we do at GF Estúdio 55. We are a plural team, a super 'tuned-in' team of professionals that seeks to evolve the process always based on the references in which our eyes see beauty; this makes our processes be discussed on different scales of expectations. This year we presented at CASACOR a tribute to Janete Costa, this woman who was a pioneer in the process of valuing popular art and craftsmanship in Brazil. We understand our place of privilege for occupying the position we are in the market today, and our quest is to occupy this place with social responsibility as well.

For me, it would never make sense to go seeking references in Milan, Paris, or any other capital in the world, if we produce houses in a tropical country, where the heat easily reaches 40 degrees – how can I appropriate references designed to solve the problems of a people totally different from ours, who live in an opposite climate, to build houses in Brazil? We have great projects recently arrived in the country, thought out and idealized by international professionals who needed Brazilian professionals to tropicalize them. It was by building all this thinking that we decided to look at everything we had in our own backyard.

Gabriel Fernandes - Casa de Novela. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2025. (Denilson Machado/Divulgação)

5. What does an architect need in order to stand out in the market today?

GF: Purpose and personality are the two major factors that can set us apart from one another. What is the true intention behind this work? What kind of expectation do I have for it? When this becomes clear, and you commit to working toward your goal, the path becomes clearer.

6. What professional dream would you like to achieve?

GF: I don't have great professional expectations that are so specific that I could list them; I have the desire to evolve my process, my architecture, and to feel alive within it. I get excited when I do work that I like, that I'm proud of the result, when I can see the outcome of the dedication printed there, in the way it presents itself to the world. My greatest dream is to see my work touching people with the same intensity with which it touches me.

Gabriel Fernandes - Somos. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2022. (Denilson Machado/Divulgação)

7. Recommend a book, movie, or even a destination that shaped your creative outlook.

GF: My language transformed when I first went to Trancoso. Bahia has an energy that is magical. I felt time pass differently, I could see things happen in their own time, I understood the beauty of simplicity and the strength of nature, and since then, I knew that Brazil would be my place in the world and I set out to investigate the life of our people with my own eyes through Brasis Que Vi.

Gabriel Fernandes moderniza casa projetada por Bernardes Arquitetura. (Denilson Machado, do MCA Estúdio/Divulgação)