Marcio Kogan’s movie houses

The unique architecture of Marcio Kogan He already has a book that covers it. It is published by Rizzoli NY and includes the construction and design philosophy of the Brazilian studio through 27 projects. Vernacular solutions, filtered light and a cinematic vision in movie homes.

This book has been a long time coming; perhaps because it is not easy to put a full stop in the speech of Studio MK27. The hook of the title is not Marcio Kogan (Brazil, 1952) with all intentions. The Brazilian architect works in the team discipline: more than 50 direct collaborators who are joined by landscapers, designers, photographers, clients who are already friends, project managers, suppliers… An entire universe orbits around one of the greats. names of current architecture.

That collective performance comes to Kogan from his days of filmmaker, when he combined architecture with filming short films, some with awards. If it had not been for a failed film (the 1987 film Fuego y Pasión with which he went bankrupt and pushed him towards his other passion) perhaps we would be talking about him in a different context. The cinematographic references are constant, from the same subtitle, in the analysis of his practice through 27 of his projects edited by Rizzoli New York: The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action.

As in good cinema, the important thing here is the script. Kogan writes it from the moment he receives the commission, imagining the characters that will inhabit the spaces, drawing obsessively. “Infinite sketches are made on paper for each project. My office is a mess sometimes, but I love it. Because we draw so much by hand, we understand scale; everything to the smallest detail so that we can understand the proportion,” he explains. And like cult directors, he places his trust in chosen actors: interior-exterior, narrative, light, body and texture. They are the protagonists of an architecture of 100% Brazilian roots.

Diana Radomysler is a fundamental piece in MK27 assuming the definition of the interiors. Hand in hand with the client, in the case of this Canopy House (one of the last three projects included in the book), the decoration is nourished by local craftsmanship with naturally imperfect furniture. Let us remember that Kogan has also delved into furniture design for the Minotti firm. FERNANDO GUERRA

The aerial view of this urbanization on the outskirts of Madrid shows a different aspect of Studio MK27’s work. A “village” of 21 houses with a more industrial aesthetic than usual, whose rectangular logic invites you to explore the “streets” between the volumes of the homes. As if it were a film set. FERNANDO GUERRA

There is enough appeal as a destination, something that Kogan took advantage of for his first hotel project, Patina Maldives. “Life, people and nature are more important than architecture,” she argues. Therefore, far from sheltering itself from the surroundings, the resort immerses itself in it with cabins, restaurants, gardens and a wellness area. FERNANDO GUERRA

Lights, cameras and action

An anecdote is told in the book that explains (almost) everything. Kogan, traveling in Paris, wakes up in the morning in the dark hotel room and heads towards the curtains to discover that when he opens them there is no big difference. This phenomenon of grayness is at the antipodes of his native country, where the powerful sun largely determines the solutions he implements in his homes. In the already mentioned continuity between inside and outside Large glass windows, rarely exposed, are essential: Kogan plays with intermediate spaces and elements that filter the entry of light. On many occasions with reticulated panels that draw on the lattices of the Arab mashrabiya, a vernacular formula of Brazilian construction in an era prior to the explosion of modernism.

Kogan thus benefits from the air currents and filtered sun to create interior scenarios framed in horizontality, another of the constants in its portfolio. Legacy of big screen framing? In any case, a praise for the reason, the simplicity and the calm that he manifests both in the homes and in commercial projects or the first hotel with his signature in the Maldives. In this and other projects he puts into practice the teaching of another famous Brazilian, Oscar Niemeyer: “Life is more important than architecture.” With that mantra, the MK27 studio continues to build movie houses.

The Redux House, on the outskirts of São Paulo, seems to float. An ethereal aesthetic, despite the significant volumes, achieved thanks to the elevation above ground level. It is one of the few examples of a Kogan house where the glass is exposed under the overhang, without being nuanced with any of the solutions that are so dear to the architect. FERNANDO GUERRA

Kogan says that the beginning of all his projects is very cinematic: he always imagines who will inhabit the space and the use they will make of it. This approach is valid for commercial developments such as Studio SCde photography in São Paulo, seen here from the outside. The work area is divided into two cubes connected by a walkway, a structure conceived as a “travelling” of people moving from one to the other. FERNANDO GUERRA

“The architecture of Studio MK27”, ed. Rizzoli New York, 24×31 cm, 288 pages, 61 euros approx. FERNANDO GUERRA

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