{"id":2321,"date":"2026-06-22T11:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archgallerydesign.art.br\/?p=2321"},"modified":"2026-06-22T12:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:00:55","slug":"leticia-nannetti-makes-the-case-for-universal-design-at-casacor-sao-paulo-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archgallerydesign.art.br\/?p=2321","title":{"rendered":"Leticia Nannetti Makes the Case for Universal Design at CASACOR S\u00e3o Paulo 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A solid-wood table in the center of the living area reinforces the principle of universal design: a space that accommodates different body types, rhythms, and ways of living. Photo: \u00c9dson Ferreira.<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
The Minas Gerais based architect presents a 54 square meter studio that folds accessibility, sensory material, and Brazilian cultural memory into a rigorously contemporary whole<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

S\u00c3O PAULO<\/strong> – There is a particular kind of design intelligence that resists being seen. At CASACOR S\u00e3o Paulo 2026, architect Leticia Nannetti, whose practice spans Minas Gerais and S\u00e3o Paulo, demonstrates exactly that with Estudio Universal Ambar, a 54 square meter space in which universal design operates not as a compliance exercise but as the organizing principle of an aesthetic language. The result is an environment that accommodates different bodies, different rhythms and different life stages without signaling any of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conceived as a response to the fair’s 2026 theme, “Mind and Heart,” the project unfolds through a form of sensory architecture that the architect describes as an inquiry into permanence: how built space can accompany the transformations of the body across time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Just as amber preserves traces with delicacy,” Nannetti says, “the space proposes an architecture capable of following the body’s transformations with naturalness and sensitivity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Material That Names the Project<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Amber is not a casual choice of title. The fossilized plant resin, capable of preserving organisms for millennia, functions as the project’s conceptual anchor: a material that protects without imprisoning, that conserves without calcifying. Nannetti transposes this logic into built space, proposing rooms that sustain life across different phases, adapting to their inhabitant’s evolving needs while maintaining aesthetic coherence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That reference becomes most visible in the entrance stained glass window, designed by the architect herself. Working in tones that evoke amber’s fossilized gold, the piece operates as a filter for both light and time, shifting the mood of the space across the hours of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Nannetti, the stained glass functions as a sensitive surface that filters light, time and perception. “Inspired by the tonalities and depth of amber, the design is constructed from organic and fluid forms, creating movement, warmth and visual continuity,” she explains. “It transforms light into atmosphere, reinforcing the project’s concept: a way of living that is sensitive, intuitive and timeless.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opting for an original stained glass work over an industrial element consolidates the architect’s commitment to permanence over trend cycles, a meaningful counter position in a fair context where visual impact and decorative obsolescence often share equal billing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The custom stained-glass window, designed by the architect herself in shades that evoke fossilized amber, simultaneously divides and connects the kitchen and bedroom, serving as both a light filter and a sculptural element in the space. Photo: \u00c9dson Ferreira.<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Universal Design Without Visual Codes<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Most encounters with universal design in residential architecture announce themselves through ramps retrofitted after the fact, hospital grade grab bars, and corridors widened without formal consideration. Nannetti’s approach inverts this logic entirely. Accessibility is built into the design from the first line, becoming invisible precisely because it is intrinsic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All furniture throughout the studio was developed from ergonomic principles, with balanced proportions and soft geometries that favor intuitive use. Rounded corners reduce the risk of impact and ease circulation, while simultaneously communicating an aesthetic warmth that has nothing to do with medical equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the bedroom and bathroom, the same visual language prevails. Spatial decisions facilitate movement and incorporate accessibility without compromising the formal unity of the ensemble. One solution stands out above the rest: a grab bar designed by the studio itself, which transcends its support function to incorporate an object holder, placing daily use items within easy reach with a formal elegance that bears no resemblance to its conventional counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describing her approach to the fixture, Nannetti explains: “For the grab bars, I proposed an original model, designed in house, that goes beyond accessibility. It also includes an object holder, so everything is easily at hand, while guaranteeing a more refined aesthetic, entirely different from what is conventionally available on the market.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repositioning the grab bar from an object associated with limitation to an integrated design element, the move stands as one of the project’s most significant contributions to the ongoing Brazilian conversation about inclusive design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The living area combines the living room and kitchen in an open-concept layout, featuring furniture with soft, organic lines and works by Brazilian artists that explore themes of memory and place. Photo: \u00c9dson Ferreira.<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Fabric, Touch and a Minas Gerais Sensibility<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Sensory experience at Estudio Universal Ambar extends well beyond the visible. Nannetti selected all textiles with particular attention to texture and weave, expanding the space’s tactile range. Subtle plaids, restrained florals and apparent weave fabrics appear in the bedroom linen, in the bathroom, and in the living areas, introducing layers of closeness and delicacy that make the environment more legible to a broader sensory register, one that extends past sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practical implications follow from this attention to texture: environments with multiple sensory cues are more easily navigated by people with visual or cognitive disabilities, who rely on other senses to construct spatial awareness. Fabric texture, the warmth of wood and the temperature of stone each operate as tactile references that guide the spatial experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond materials, the project’s curatorial dimension carries an equally significant narrative weight. Nannetti assembled works and objects that speak to materiality, time and territory, weaving Brazilian references and Mineiro cultural memory through the space discreetly, without imposing identity as ornament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I prioritized the art and object curation to deepen this narrative, bringing together artists and pieces that engage with materiality, time and territory,” she says. “Brazilian references and Mineiro memories appear subtly, integrated into the ensemble as part of the project’s own identity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inherited memory is not incidental to this approach. The daughter of a restorer of colonial townhouses, Nannetti spent her childhood observing the preservation and reinvention of historic spaces, a formative experience that shaped both her sensitivity to material culture and her intuition for the layered time that objects carry, and for what that time makes available across generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the bedroom at Estudio Universal Ambar, a jute-covered headboard and an illuminated niche featuring objects curated with emotional significance create an intimate and sensory atmosphere. Photo: \u00c9dson Ferreira.<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
The Social Space as a Place of Continuity<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Inside the studio, the living and kitchen areas connect fluidly, without partitions that interrupt circulation or narrow the visual field. This integration represents a functional choice with direct consequences for universal design: open, continuous environments facilitate mobility for people using wheelchairs, walkers or other assistive technologies, while equally favoring supervision and cohabitation between people with different needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A panoramic view of Estudio Universal Ambar highlights the integration between the kitchen, the stained-glass window, and the bedroom\u2014spaces connected by a spacious and accessible hallway. Photo: \u00c9dson Ferreira.<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Designed for the long term, the environment makes clear its distance from event decoration thinking, in which a space exists only to be photographed and then dismantled. Every design decision in Estudio Universal Ambar presupposes a real inhabitant, one with routines, preferences and physical limitations that will change over the course of a life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the proposal’s most pertinent qualities is precisely this longitudinal perspective on inhabitation. In a society aging at an accelerating rate, universal design shifts from niche demand to structural necessity in residential architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legible too in this dimension is the project’s relationship to CASACOR 2026’s “Mind and Heart” theme. The quality of domestic space, Nannetti’s proposal suggests, directly affects its inhabitants’ psychological wellbeing. Spatial clarity reduces the cognitive load of orientation. Soft materials ease the anxiety that sterile environments produce. Aesthetic warmth communicates belonging, one of the foundational elements of emotional health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The natural woodwork extends across the ceiling and wall panels, creating a welcoming atmosphere that evokes the architectural heritage of Minas Gerais. Photo: \u00c9dson Ferreira<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Practice and Recognition<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Based in Minas Gerais with a reach that extends across S\u00e3o Paulo, Nannetti runs a practice built on a design culture that values client listening and curatorial thinking as instruments of architecture. Her presence at CASACOR 2026 marks her third consecutive participation in the event, following editions in 2023 and 2024. At the 2024 edition, she received a prize that consolidated her position among the standout practitioners of the Brazilian architecture and interiors scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leticia Nannetti _ Photo: \u00c9dson Ferreira.<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Returning with a project of greater conceptual ambition, she reflects a maturing trajectory, one that parallels the ideas embedded in Estudio Universal Ambar itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Predating any formal education, the childhood spent alongside a father who restored colonial Mineiro casar\u00f5es continues to orient a practice that understands space not as a blank canvas but as a field of relations between the present and the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing among the most rigorously articulated environments presented at CASACOR S\u00e3o Paulo 2026, Estudio Universal Ambar refuses to separate functionality from aesthetics, accessibility from beauty, or local identity from contemporary architecture. Through built space, Nannetti argues that universal design is not a concession to a project but its fullest possible condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Partners<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Estudio Universal Ambar was realized with the support of A Morada, Amorim Cortinas, Atelie Benini, Brastemp, Breton, Coral, Deca, Divinas Gerais, Duratex, Interlight, Mobility Brasil, Portinari, Sergio Ramos Atelie and WM Marmores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

INFORMATION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leticia Nannetti Arquitetura<\/strong>
leticianannetti.com.br | @leticianannettiarquitetura<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CASACOR S\u00e3o Paulo 2026 | casacor.com
Parque da \u00c1gua Branca, S\u00e3o Paulo, through Aug. 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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