When purpose meets personality: Gabriel Rosa's meteoric trajectory in architecture

Gabriel Rosa's first participation in CASACOR São Paulo, in 2024, still carried the eagerness of a young professional who had just found an opportunity capable of transforming his life. His wish was for people to get to know his work, for his name to become recognized. More than that, he was willing to make that showcase mean something for the career he was starting to build. At 25, freshly graduated, he left there with the title of the youngest Black architect to be awarded at the show.

Today, at 27, he looks back at that moment with a different perspective. "I was in a big hurry for people to get to know my work," he says. What came afterward taught him that recognition doesn't rest on speed alone. "I came to understand that everything was work. People would only recognize my work through the good work I delivered."

Lavabo Terra Sagrada, por Gabriel Rosa na CASACOR São Paulo 2024. (Theggrau/CASACOR)

Gabriel's trajectory has indeed moved quickly. In 2019, still studying Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade Nove de Julho, he began developing his first projects. In 2022, he opened his own studio; the following year, he completed his degree. Then came the projects with influencers, his second participation in CASACOR São Paulo, in 2025, and recognition on the Forbes Under 30 list. Through it all, he was building a language that doesn't fit easily into a single definition.

"I have many references," he says. And they come from very different places: fashion, music, cinema and, of course, architecture. His style brings together contemporary, Mid-Century Modern and Afro-modernism, a movement he says he has increasingly identified with. The result is a sophisticated architecture that doesn't hide the person behind it.

A well-woven repertoire

Gabriel Rosa - Adega Legado. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2025. (Vitor Guilherme/CASACOR)

Gabriel talks about fashion with the same naturalness he brings to architecture. He likes to dress well and to observe what's happening in that universe: colors, silhouettes, textures, combinations. For him, there isn't such a great distance between the way someone chooses an outfit and the home they choose to inhabit. "Our home is an extension of who we are," he often tells clients.

The way someone dresses, according to him, can offer clues about a client's personal taste. It doesn't mean the client will necessarily follow Paris or Milan Fashion Week, he jokes, but it is through this observation of dressing that the client will feed other fields of their perception. A color, a texture, a print can cross from one universe into another.

Gabriel Rosa - Adega Legado. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2025. (Vitor Guilherme/CASACOR)

His creative process follows the same logic. When he puts together a moodboard, Gabriel doesn't just intend to gather materials: his table is populated with fabrics, images, colors and textures. Before drawing, he seeks to see the whole. "I like to first understand whether the entire composition pleases me in terms of the composition of colors, textures," he explains. The project takes shape from there.

The vision belongs to the author

For him, authenticity is not just an accessory quality: it is, above all, a work tool. "I think we are artists," he states. And, for an artist to create, some degree of freedom is needed.

The architect believes the market can be quite rigid and that there is no single formula for standing out. "I think people connect with people, and clients connect with personalities," he affirms. Building this personality takes time, he acknowledges, but the path lies precisely in not trying to mold oneself too much to what already exists.

Gabriel Rosa - Adega Legado. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2025. (Vitor Guilherme/CASACOR)

At CASACOR, this takes on another dimension. Designing for a client means negotiating with desires, needs, preferences, and boundaries. At the show, the client is the designer himself. The counterpart to this freedom is a greater demand on oneself: with each edition, Gabriel wants to surprise himself with his work all over again.

The first CASACOR had yet another effect. Gabriel began to notice that there were people following his work not only as a professional reference, but as a possible path. He receives messages from students who say that, upon seeing him in that space, they began to believe they could also get there. "I see my work today as a spokesperson so that other people can also cross those doors," he says. This dimension also appears in the Núcleo Amandla, created by Gabriel to support and empower entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities.

Stories that take shape

Gabriel Rosa - Lavabo Terra Sagrada. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2024. (MCA Estúdio/CASACOR)

At CASACOR, this willingness to work from a story appears in the two projects he signed. In 2024, in the Lavabo Terra Sagrada, Gabriel turned his gaze to the tradition and spirituality of the Himba people, inhabitants of northern Namibia deeply connected to their territory. The 27 m² space was built from earthy colors, handmade ceramics, geometric patterns, and natural materials. The following year, in the Adega Legado, the starting point was wine, often associated with European tradition, presented through its history on the African continent, where it had already been part of rituals in ancient Egypt more than five thousand years ago. The 33 m² space took on the air of a sanctuary, with stained glass, arches, and wood in warm tones.

Now, he is beginning to experiment with this same logic on a different scale. The studio is preparing a jewelry collection, bringing fashion and design even closer together. "This jewelry collection is also a moment for the market to see my perspective on the micro scale, and to try to bring fashion a bit closer to my design universe."

The next design

Gabriel Rosa - Adega Legado. Projeto da CASACOR São Paulo 2025. (Vitor Guilherme/CASACOR)

There is also a larger project: Gabriel wants to take his work abroad and put Brazilian architecture on another radar. It is a movement that has already begun, he says, and one he intends to deepen in the coming years. But when he talks about the future, what stands out is the way he speaks about freedom.

Asked about his greatest professional dream, Gabriel thinks for a moment and answers: "I think my dream is to be able to be a free artist." He imagines that artist who scribbles anything and is acclaimed by the world. The idea fits with everything that came up throughout the conversation: the defense of authorship, the taste for mixing references, the desire to experiment with other fields, and the refusal to fit into a ready-made formula. This combination is what makes his current moment so interesting: Gabriel seems less concerned with proving that he has arrived than with discovering where he can still go.