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Paola Lenti’s 8,100-square-foot flagship in São Paulo’s Jardins neighborhood uses a glass-and-metal structure and a planted façade to frame the Italian furniture brand’s collections. Designed by Armentano Arquitetura, the showroom’s vegetation is still growing, so the façade is expected to change over time.
Paola Lenti’s three-story flagship in São Paulo’s Jardins neighborhood brings the Italian furniture brand’s vivid, textured collections into an open showroom framed by glass, dark metal and a planted façade. Designed by Armentano Arquitetura (AARQ), the 8,100-square-foot building is intended to let the products lead visually while its vines continue to grow and filter daylight.
The showroom uses an open floor plan that allows the furniture to be rearranged, with an independent metal structure keeping the interior largely uninterrupted. A glass envelope connects the rooms visually to the surrounding greenery. Matte-black stairs and structural elements provide a graphic contrast to the foliage and the color-rich furniture.
The defining exterior feature is a network of tensioned steel cables spanning the structure’s openings. Vines grow along the cables and cascade across the glass. According to the project report in Design Milk, the planting is intended to become denser over time, filtering the light entering the showroom. The greenery is already present, but the façade remains a changing part of the design rather than a finished, fixed screen.
AARQ developed the planted façade as a response to the site and the brand’s material language. Design Milk reported that the compact urban lot is surrounded by neighboring buildings, making a transparent glass envelope a less obvious choice. The vegetation gives that transparency added privacy and softness. Inside, floor-to-ceiling glazing frames palms, broad-leafed tropical plants and trailing vines as part of the showroom’s composition.
A Showroom Designed to Change
The project treats the storefront and its landscape as part of the brand experience, rather than as a neutral container for furniture. Its living façade connects the building’s materials to the tactile character of Paola Lenti’s products: the cables provide a precise support system, while the vines introduce texture and growth. That relationship is the architects’ interpretation of the brand’s design language, not a claim that the building itself is a product.
The approach also affects how visitors encounter the collection. Flexible interiors can accommodate different arrangements, while the glazing and plants shape views between the showroom and the street. Because the planting is meant to develop further, the building’s appearance will evolve rather than remain exactly as it looks at opening or publication. The report does not provide performance data on how much shade, cooling or privacy the greenery delivers.
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How the Green Screen Took Shape
Paola Lenti’s work combines technical approaches to fibers with artisanal methods, according to the Design Milk report. The brand is represented exclusively in Brazil by Casual Móveis and operates in more than 60 countries. AARQ’s brief was to make room for the furniture’s colors and textures instead of creating a competing visual statement.
Design Milk reports that the steel cables appeared in early design studies, while the façade planting came later as the team developed the glass envelope. The decision to delay photography until the vegetation had begun to function architecturally was intentional, the report says. The project’s concept sketch showed a dark, rectilinear building softened by planting—a contrast that remains in the completed design.
“Our role isn’t to compete visually with the objects. It’s precisely to frame them in the best possible way.”
— João Armentano, AARQ partner and creative director, quoted by Design Milk
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Growth and Performance Remain Open
The report does not state when the façade is expected to reach its intended density, what species were used, or how the planting will be maintained. It also gives no measured figures for daylight reduction, indoor temperature, energy use or the privacy provided by the vines. Those effects should not be treated as established performance outcomes based on the design description alone.
The source identifies the building as Paola Lenti’s São Paulo flagship but does not give an opening date, visitor information or operating details. It is also unclear whether the planting plan includes ongoing monitoring or specific targets for its growth.
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The Façade’s Next Growth Phase
The next visible development is the continued growth of the façade planting. AARQ’s design anticipates a denser veil over time, but no timetable or milestone for that change is provided. Future documentation could show how the vegetation develops and how it affects the showroom’s light and views; the source does not announce a scheduled update.
indoor tropical plant arrangements
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Key Questions
Where is Paola Lenti’s São Paulo flagship?
It is in Jardins, a neighborhood of São Paulo, Brazil.
Who designed the building?
Armentano Arquitetura (AARQ) designed the three-story showroom.
What is the planted façade made of?
Vines grow along tensioned steel cables that span openings in the metal structure and extend across the glass envelope.
Is the green façade complete?
Not according to the project report. The planting is intended to grow into a denser screen, and no completion timetable is given.
How large is the flagship?
The reported showroom covers 8,100 square feet across three stories.
Source: rss
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