Café Estação Ciência, Brazil Building Project Photos, News, Design Property Images

Café Estação Ciência São Paulo

Brazilian Cafe Building, SP design by Una Arquitetos, South America

page updated 3 June 2024

Location: São Paulo

Date built: 2008

Design: Una Arquitetos

Photos by Bebete Viégas

3 Feb 2010

Café Estação Ciência

The Lapa neighborhood is characterized by the old industrial occupation served by Santos-Jundiaí. Next to the project is the Municipal Market of Lapa, Sesc Pompéia, and exactly adjoining, the Lapa bus terminal and the CPTM train station.

Estação Ciência is a center for scientific dissemination, founded by CNPq in 1987, and integrated with USP since 1990. A large exhibition area, aimed at students, occupies a warehouse built in the early 20th century that housed a weaving mill. The factory had internal railway branches and 140-meter platforms associated with the buildings, for input and output of inputs.

The complex, which is under study for registration by historical heritage agencies, still houses a second parallel warehouse that functions as a center of activities for people with special needs. Between the two brick buildings there is an open space, with granite cobblestone floors and trees, where the trains arrived.

In view of the need for a new coffee, the proposal was to implement it on the same level as the covered platform, where visitors enter and circulate. The quality of this internal landscape defined the departure of a new light construction, whose proportion respected and, at the same time, tried to emphasize the delicacy of the place.

The work strategy was to avoid interference with the existing one as much as possible, so we opted for an independent metallic structure, 17 meters long by 3.40 meters wide and 2.40 meters high. Only two foundation blocks emerge to directly support the new suspended structure. A central roof beam hangs another from the floor, and the floor and ceiling plans are transversely balanced. The seals were specified to avoid overloads and deformations: wood, glass and metal brises.

During the day the transparency from the internal space is total and the volume becomes opaque to the outside, at night everything is reversed. The glass panels slide to promote broad entry through the platform and natural cross ventilation. The windshield pivots to allow easy cleaning of the windows. The internal space is organized by the service counter itself, a single fixed piece, which houses all the facilities and equipment necessary for the operation of the café.

Café Estação Ciência – Building Information

Ficha técnica

Architecture Una architects: Cristiane Muniz, Fábio Valentim, Fernanda Barbara and Fernando Viégas

Collaborators: Ana Paula de Castro, Gabriela Gurgel, Jimmy Liendo, José Carlos Silveira Junior, Luis Eduardo Menezes, Maria Cristina Motta, Sílio de Almeida.

Survey: Rimidalu Foundations and Topography
Structure and foundations: Stec Engenharia
Hydraulic Installations: Nestor Caiuby
Electrical Installations: Pascoal d´Aprile
Industrial Kitchen: Nucleora
Luminotechnics: Ricardo Heder
Construction: Fina Engenharia
Science Station Coordination: Francisco Medeiros (in memoriam) and Maria Alice Gonzales
Coesf Coordination: Valmir do Val

Photography: Bebete Viégas