Founded in the city of São Paulo in 2000, METRO is an architecture studio active across a range of scales, from temporary exhibitions and installations to master planning and urban interventions. The office operates at a high level of technical rigor and research, seeking to promote connections between the work and its context, and to support the collective use of both public and private spaces. Directors Martin Corullon, Gustavo Cedroni and Marina Ioshii have a wealth of experience in projects across institutional, commercial and cultural sectors and experience at the international offices of Foster + Partners in London and OMA in New York.
Clients include the São Paulo Biennale Foundation, Sesc, Nestle, Votorantim, Leme and Triângulo Gallery, The Moreira Salles Institute and at The São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) where they remain a key part of the design team. Other projects include urban interventions like the Ladeira of Barroquinha in Salvador. Most recently they have partnered with Paulo Mendes da Rocha [Pritzker Prize and Golden Lion Award] designing Aesop’s first Brazilian store and are responsible for the expansion project for the campus at The Insitute of Aeronautical Technology in São José Dos Campos, recently completed. Also designed the restaurant for the Reffetorio Gastromotiva, social project led by the Italian chef Massimo Bottura.
In 2011 they were selected among the AIA’s New Practices NY-SP and in 2012 and 2016 received the APCA Prize given by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics for their work at São Paulo’s 30th Biennale of Art and for bringing back Lina Bo Bardi’s iconic glass easels to MASP’s permanent collection. In 2013 they were chosen as one of the nine Brazilian offices of the new generation highlighted by the exhibition Nove Novos in Frankfurt. METRO also participated in the Architecture Biennale of Buenos Aires in 2011 and 2015 and in the Architecture Week in Prague in 2015. The office has publications in the magazines Casabella, Domus, L’Architecture D’Aujourd’hui and Wallpaper, where the Quay of Arts appeared as one of the world’s most important projects in construction at the time.