Marcio Kogan: "Architecture is a work of maturity. Maybe today I'm just starting to learn"

One of the most recognized names in contemporary Brazilian architecture, Marcio Kogan has built his own language by bringing together the principles of national modernism and an aesthetic marked by formal simplicity, precision in details, and the integration between indoor and outdoor spaces. Born in São Paulo in 1952, the architect graduated from the School of Architecture and Urbanism at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in 1976. Son of engineer Aron Kogan, responsible for emblematic buildings in the São Paulo capital, he grew up in an environment close to construction and architectural thinking.

(@blackhaus_studio/Divulgação)

In his early years, Kogan divided his work between architecture and film production, with projects developed alongside Isay Weinfeld, a college classmate. This connection between different creative languages has accompanied a career dedicated to experimentation and the construction of narratives through spaces. In 2001, his office was renamed Studio MK27, consolidating a collaborative work model that brings together architects, designers, and professionals from different fields. Today, with more than 70 members and an international network of collaborators, the studio develops projects in Brazil and in countries across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

This vision also extends to furniture design and international collaborations. Since 2017, Studio MK27 has maintained a partnership with the Italian brand Minotti, translating references of tropical modernism into pieces that explore wood, stone, and metal. Among the highlights of this collaboration is the Elas armchair collection, displayed at the brand's flagship in São Paulo. In a conversation with CASACOR during a Minotti event, the architect revisits different moments of his career and shares reflections on architecture, design, and his creative process.

1. You often directly relate your architecture to your experience in cinema. After so many years in your career, what does cinema still influence in the way you design?

Marcio Kogan: There was a moment in my life, when I was in college, when I didn't know if I would be an architect or a filmmaker. I had that doubt, although I think I was born an architect because of my father, who was an architect-engineer. Later, cinema came as an option. I made several short films with Isay [Weinfeld], who was my film partner at that time.

Things went on, I graduated as an architect, and the dream of making a professional feature film came true in 1987, with the film Fogo e Paixão, also with Isay. It was something grand, but it ended up not fully pleasing me. I liked all of the short films, but the feature wasn't quite that, partly due to our lack of experience. I think that if we had continued, we would have learned how to do it. At the same time, I lost a lot of money and that harmed my architecture office at the time.

With that trauma, despite loving having done it, I decided to be an architect 24 hours a day, and my dream of cinema went away. But then comes the great experience of it all: I bring to architecture what I did in cinema. For example, the screen proportions, the light, and the way of thinking about the project — to me, it's a bit like the script of a film.

I see in cinema the importance of a complete team to make a film, with a director of photography, set designer, and several other professionals. This also ended up becoming a bit of the Studio MK27 story, starting with the fact that I removed my own name from the Studio. So it was something that happened in my life to become something else.

Fogo e Paixão (BBC/Divulgação)

2. Your works throughout your career have had a strong influence from Brazilian modernism. What do you still consider essential in that legacy, and what has been reinterpreted in the contemporary context?

MK: I think perhaps like every Brazilian architect, at least those who came from FAU and Mackenzie, perhaps from all the schools in the city of São Paulo, we are all children of modernism. It was a movement that, in my opinion, was the most important in the world at that time, from the 1940s onward, culminating in the inauguration of Brasília in 1960. It was something very strong — it's impossible to get rid of it.

We do more contemporary work that has modified this, but the root is that one and will never cease to be. I think, for example, that you will never see an architect born here [in Brazil] inspired by Zaha Hadid.

Modernism is part of our culture: a way of thinking without excesses, very rational and focused on proportions. It's as if you were going to design in a place in Africa where the architecture is all made of earth and, suddenly, you built an alien object there.

Casa Pátios, projeto do Studio MK27. (Pedro Kok/Studio MK27/Divulgação)

3. After decades building such a recognizable language, what is still capable of pushing you out of your comfort zone when facing a new project?

MK: I think I [step out of my comfort zone] every day. First, there's the most dramatic struggle for beginners: finding clients who want to carry out the projects you wish to do. That's the essence of every architect's problem.

Nowadays, it's common for clients to show up wanting projects identical to my previous ones. We always try to break away from that; sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don't. But I would really like to never settle.

Often we have to do the same things, but it's essential to try bringing new languages. Recently, we delivered a totally different project. The client was surprised and said: "What is this, it doesn't look like you!" and we replied that we wanted to do something new. He shot back: "But precisely with me?" (laughs).

Residencial Redux, projeto do Studio MK27. (Fernando Guerra/Studio MK27/Divulgação)

4. Your collaboration with Minotti has already resulted in several pieces and collections. How does this exchange between Studio MK27 and the brand's team work?

MK: The collaboration began during a visit to Studio MK about 13 or 14 years ago. They came to get to know Brazil and a mutual friend brought them to the office. They visited some projects, liked the work, and suggested we do something together. The formal invitation only came in 2017.

The company was starting to bring in three or four new architects to their team, under the art direction of Rodolfo Dordoni, a super important designer who was helping to rethink the design aspect, and we began working together. Our first work was an outdoor collection, which is the Quadrado.

We had never done that. We used to design a lot for clients, but our industrial design expertise came from the furniture we designed for our projects. We took the risk, and the Quadrado was a best-seller. From that, we earned carte blanche to create.

Because it's a family business, the first contacts were strange for both sides; it felt like we were entering someone's home. But we learned to work together. We noticed that they always do things very well — which our office loves! So, we learned a little from them and they from us.

Quadrado Minotti (Divulgação)

5. What do you consider most challenging when translating the office's architectural language into the scale of furniture?

MK: The proportions, the elegant way of designing, and some more explicit elements. For example, we signed a table with some wood fluting with marble. That has already become part of our language. The Quadrado, on the other hand, is entirely based on industrial references, but then the collection gradually detached itself from those references. We realized that the relationship with architecture doesn't need to be so explicit.

6. After decades of Studio MK27, there are professionals who have worked by your side for many years and take on recurring co-authorships. Currently, how does this dynamic work within the team and how do you make this collaborative model work on a daily basis?

MK: Any project that comes into Studio MK today, I start designing with two or three other people. Sometimes even an intern who started working a month before. This happens quite a lot; I doubt you'd find anything like it elsewhere. We gradually learned to do this until we reached the way we operate today.

It was a difficult process; it was chaotic. There was a time when we tested closing the office one day a week. There were four or five teams and, at the end of the week, they would present their ideas for a project. It wasn't the model we followed, but it was something that gave us many other paths and thoughts.

Overall, the office has a very collaborative spirit among people. If you look, there isn't a single project in the office that doesn't have a co-author in the credits. There are always two or three people.

Studio MK27 (Divulgação)

7. What advice do you give to professionals who are entering the market now?

MK: What students most like to hear from what I say is that everything is very slow. Everyone is in a rush for things to happen, but architecture is a work of time and maturity. In my case, it's been 40 years [of career] and perhaps today I'm just beginning to learn how to do it. Sometimes there's a project you do, you don't like something about it, and you think about doing it differently next time. Except that next time may take years to come.

You come to understand that even to land a client, whether for your own office or working for someone else, there is a maturity required for things to happen. I personally really enjoy that.