(“Text as taken from the website”)
Fernando Maculan
Fernando Maculan is an architect who graduated in 1997 from the School of Architecture at UFMG. His professional career began at AUA, where he was a founding partner (1998-2003). He worked at the Hayano Gumi architecture office, in Tokyo (2004-2005) and directed the Designing Across Boundaries project in London, with designers Paula Dib and Renata Mendes (2007-2008). He is a founding partner of Molmaculan Design with Adriano Mol (since 2003), a member of Laboratório Piracema de Design (since 2006), a collaborator of Grupo Corpo Companhia de Dança (since 2008), and associate architect at BCMF Arquitetos (since 2011). He is co-founder and co-editor of MDC – Revista de Arquitetura e Urbanismo and curator of the Coarquitetura project, which includes the participation of his EAUFMG students (2010). Maculan received awards in Brazil, Belgium and China and had works exhibited in Brazil, Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea and Japan.
Joana Magalhães
an architect who graduated from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, she founded A&M Arquitetura with architect Álvaro Hardy, in 1990. Her projects in Belo Horizonte include urban interventions such as the revitalization of the Orla and Ecological Park in Pampulha; Rua dos Carijós, Praça Rio Branco and Praça Carlos Chagas; interventions in institutional buildings such as the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais, the Casa do Baile in Pampulha (in partnership with the architect Oscar Niemeyer) and the Palácio das Artes; museums such as the Abílio Barreto Historical Museum; institutional buildings such as the Japanese Immigration Memorial, in Pampulha. Publications of her work include the magazine Modulo, AU – Arquitetura e Urbanismo, L’Architecture D’aujourd hui, Summa and books such as Arquiteturas no Brasil anos 80 and Architects from Brazil, 1995. He received awards such as Honorable Mention at the 9th IAB Awards for the Reform of Cine Brasil; 1st place in the 8th Architecture Awards of the IAB-MG, with the Abílio Barreto Historical Museum project; BH Centenary Medal; 1st place in the National Contest for the Restructuring Project of Praça Rio Branco, in BH and the Diploma of Honor to Merit by the Municipality of BH. In 2005, he partnered with architect Fernando Maculan and they founded MACh Architects.
Practice Ideology
At MACh, we absorb diversity as raw material for our professional practice and the conception of our projects.
We consider complexity and variation to be the most challenging and generous resources for our work. Working with different people and for different people; dealing with variable themes, in different places; adapting materials, tools and techniques; understanding traditions and behaviors, and identify expectations for the future. We believe that all this wealth of possibilities can generate a profusion of ways that reveal both users and authors.
It is possible, however, to recognize common denominators in our projects: the search for a formal synthesis that better and more directly expresses the initial concepts; the appropriation of the external environment and the landscape as an extension of the work; the appreciation of permeability in architecture, with equal emphasis on empty and full spaces.
Another important aspect of our practice is collaboration. We discovered very early on that working on multidisciplinary projects is a great way to maintain continuous learning as we work. We also believe that fluid communication between people is an essential factor to achieve integrated results, especially in Brazil, where the socio-cultural reality is so diverse and the demands for architectural and urbanistic solutions are increasingly complex. Our commitment is growing with the global process around a project theme.
