Lauro Andrade, DW! São Paulo Design Week

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. For today's show, we head to São Paulo to talk about DW Design Week, which is considered one of the most important urban design festivals in the world. I spoke with their founder, Lauro Andrade.

0:33Lauro Andrade, what a pleasure talking to you. You're the founder of DW here in São Paulo. First of all, I want to know more, when actually did you found DW? Tell us a bit more about the beginning. of DW. Hello Fernando, it's a pleasure and an honor being with you and explaining a little bit more about DW, São Paulo Design Week. We started in 2012 and this year from March 14th to March 24th we're going to have the 13th edition here with 250 events in 140 different locations. And what I find interesting, especially this year, there's eight different districts. So it shows how big Sao Paulo is and how diverse as well, right?

1:20Yes, Sao Paulo is a huge city. The metropolitan area of Sao Paulo has 22 million inhabitants. The state of Sao Paulo, 40 million. So it's almost a country itself. And to organize the visits of our guests, so we must have 50 ,000 guests visiting the activities, we divide the city in eight different districts. So each district has its own characters, so are different, more commercial areas, more underground areas. So the activities happen according to these characters of the spaces. So it's very interesting, this division in districts. And, you know, it's also an urbanist festival, right? Because it's not just design, but it's also how it integrates with the city, I presume, as well, right?

2:05Yes, we use it to call that we are a creative economy festival. Creative economy is a concept that was born in England some years ago. And it is a connection that joins design, architecture, interior design, also music, gastronomy. So, there are different areas. And Sao Paulo has this plurality and diversity in its lifestyle. So, it's not difficult to connect the design, especially the product design of home and office design, with this lifestyle. So we create a very original and special festival between lots in the world. One thing we were discussing before the interview, how I think in Brazil we're praising more Brazilian design.

2:46Because before we looked outside, but we have amazing design here, right? Do you feel that companies and business people are investing more on Brazilian creatives? You're correct. In fact, Brazil is a creative power in the world. So we are a young country, only 500 years old, comparing with England, for example, for instance, the United Kingdom. So we are young, but we are built for different cultures, races, religions. So we are this melting pot. We have fire here. So the creative world is very strong from north to south. So it's a different country, different cultures that composes this nation.

3:24So what we did for the past 12 years in Design Week was just that. bringing the creative people from all around the country to have business with business people, with entrepreneurs, with the companies. So now, after more than 10 years, we have this magic happening. So they are together. If you go to any high-end or medium-high-end brand in Brazil, this company will have a creator signing something. So this edition, we're going to have more than 1 ,000 creators working with up to 200 companies, different companies. So this is an achievement. So some years ago we have the art world and the business world separated and this is a mistake.

4:08When you speak about innovation, when you speak about new solutions for society, it's mandatory you join these worlds, the creative and the productive. So what you can see here is exactly that. With this we bring this new vision of design is not only about aesthetics, it's about solution for society from small scale to urban scale. So we have these proposals, even bringing life to the neighbourhoods that use it to be abandoned and now they are growing again, they are born again through design and creative economy. Because we were talking as well, design shouldn't be just for the 0.5 % of the population, right?

4:49It shouldn't be too elitist. I think, yeah, as you say, interventions in neighborhoods, I think this is extremely important. Exactly. You can have design for all tastes and all pockets. It's what we used to say. Of course, you can have this high AAA design that reaches a few groups of the society. It's okay, it's fair, no problem. But the design is about bringing solution. So if you bring solution, you can bring solution for all levels of society, not only the high level. So what we do for instance in Sao Paulo downtown is bringing this vision for very sometimes dangerous areas that now when we bring creators, when we bring brands, not only to exhibit here in our festival but also to live here, we bring life.

5:35So this is part of the legacy that we can give for the city for being hosting us. And you mentioned downtown, We are here in downtown at Edificio Renata, which is an iconic building in Sao Paulo that has been through a heterofeet. And tell us also as part of DW, there will be like some sort of a tour of some historic buildings in the city. That's fantastic because Sao Paulo has incredible apartments from the 50s, 60s. This is the first year that we created officially a circuit. So it's the historic building circuit. So we have nine different locations that hosts anchor events, main events of the W.

6:14So here we are in Renata right now. Renata is a 50-year building that was created by Oswaldo Bratke, a modernist. So now he had a retrofit. And here is our official hospitality center. And then we have also Italia building that is also a modernist icon with Boom SP design. It's a huge event inside of this. And then we have Galeria Metropoli, that we have more than 300 creators inside showing stuff. And also Edificio Virginia and Galeria Zarvo. So different locations, also Misericordia building. And also, you know, lots of different locations that probably the people worldwide don't know what I'm mentioning.

6:56So very iconic and historic buildings that used to be built during the modernist period, 50s, 60s, 70s. And then became a little bit abandoned for the past years. And now we are bringing life back with these events of the W, São Paulo Design Week. People should come and visit. One thing, your background, your initial background is very much business focused. So not necessarily design, right? So it is interesting because you bring a new look perhaps to that world in a way. Exactly. This is an interesting question because in the beginning, my background is about business. I have a master's degree and also graduation, and I'm not a lot of education worldwide in business.

7:35We organized events, more than 50 events worldwide for the past 20 years, and most of them connected with design, architecture, and creative economy. So I think you are right. The fact that I'm not totally connected with creative and also not totally connected with business gave me space for new ideas, the ideas of connecting people, connecting worlds that use it to live separate. In my mind, it's a wrong decision being separated. Of course, you can have art that is freedom, you can have business scale that is another model of, but when you join creative and economy and the businessmen and entrepreneurs, you can change the world.

8:17I totally agree with this vision and it's our goal since the beginning of the UI in 2012. Do you think Brazil is a design powerhouse when you look at the world and different countries? Yeah, I'm totally sure that we are a big house of this creative economy. We have the three main assets to create this power. The first one are the creators from north to south of the country. We have lots of, we are kind of melting pot, really alive. and we have a lot of power, a lot of energy bringing from the creators that is the main, the first asset. The second one are the entrepreneurs. So we have also entrepreneurs from north to south.

8:59Don't think European and North American entrepreneurs, that is easy to be an entrepreneur in Brazil. It's very hard, a lot of difficulties to be an entrepreneur. But we have these strong men and women that creates companies that exports for all around the world. So we have the second asset. So the first one creative, second one entrepreneur. And we have the third one. The third one is the biodiversity and natural resources. We have in Brazil 28 % of the world biodiversity. So when we connect creators, entrepreneurs, and biodiversity, of course, used with parsimony and also sustainable ways, we have this power.

9:41And we are only in the beginning. And just because Monaco, we always go to Saloni every year, I presume you're going as well. Is there any connection between DW and Salon as well? Because I think some of the work that we might see here, who knows, it might be going next month. Exactly. We have a connection not only with Milano, but also with London. So we are based there. So Milano is our main reference about the Urban Festival of Design because of Saloni del Mobley, 40 Saloni del Mobley, that is the Milano Design Week. So we inspired there more than 12, 15 years ago, and we bring the idea. And to create in São Paulo Design Week, we also were inspired by London Design Festival, created by Sergio Ansoro, that was a brilliant mind.

10:25So I have a special connection and admiration for him. So to create in Brazil, we joined this viral organic movement of Milano with the structural organization and planning of London. So, São Paulo was born from this marriage, from these ideas, this inspiration. And now, it's very interesting. After 12 years, in fact, 12 years before, we used it to exhibit first in Europe or in United States, and then exhibit in Brazil. For this year, for the first time, most of the exhibitions here will go for Milano and another country after. So this is a very interesting change of positioning of calendar that the Brazilian companies and creators launches its pieces and collections first in Brazil and then they travel.

11:15So we are really happy with that. So it's part of the proof that we are doing our job correctly.

11:32That was Lauro Andrade, founder of São Paulo's Design Week, DW. For more information, go to dwsemanadedesign.com.br. The show was edited by Mariella Bevan, and I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco. Thank you for listening.