Behind the polycarbonate facade of Dois Trópicos in São Paulo lies an earth-toned restaurant, store and yoga studio.

Brazil’s MNMA Studio designed the space, using hand-crafted methods and local materials to evoke a feeling that the interiors have a long and storied heritage. The exterior folds back to reveal a chunky spiral staircase and walls that have been covered in an earth-based render to add texture.

Local artisans installed terracotta bricks to form floors, staircases, and counters. Clay pots dotted around add to the wellness spa’s sense of history.

The studio said it aimed to create something that looked contemporary but opened up to evoke ‘some lost time of ancient forms of construction, a slow passing of time, an earth place’.

Visitors can head upstairs to the yoga studio, or have food on the lower ground floor, where restaurant tables sit atop a gravel-covered floor, beneath a bank of glass panels and trailing greenery.

R. Mateus Grou, 589 – Pinheiros, São Paulo – SP, 05415-050, Brazil

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