Approved the new city master plan, it was possible to build in the city center the impressive Downtown Arouche CLUBE: a brand-new skyscraper of steel and glass, a crowd-gatherer, a stacked ode to human encounter. Exiting the elevator on the twenty-fourth floor, the visitor finds themselves in a faintly lit labyrinth illuminated by LEDs. A paradise never before trodden by man. The delightful path leads to a locker room where one undresses, dons a towel, and enters the adjacent space where there is a large number of other men (sometimes he may even face a human adversary).
Other bodily and soulful urgencies can be addressed on the floors immediately below and above. On the 23rd, the panoramic view of Rio Branco Avenue allows for a bar, a place of relaxed camaraderie, where oysters are served. It is not uncommon to see groups of towel-wearers sharing the delicacy to soothe the burden of the metropolis. On the twenty-fifth, a self-care circuit is organized with machines for muscle dilation, artificial tanning booths, and mirrors for frank and fraternal admiration.* Sauna-System is the CLUBE’s furniture line produced with industrialized aluminum pieces, which are immersed in a tank where they receive electrical discharges, ensuring their durability and resistance.
CLUBE is a young architecture and design firm that has been committed to producing contemporary design. Design that articulates a certain praise for modernity, emphasizing what it selects as the best of it: it’s end.
The line emulates all the features of a sauna, identified in each component, in the fittings of the panels, in the grooves of the seats. On the other hand, the crisp cuts and materiality pay homage to the precision of the machine. Each specimen is an articulated set of signs, a gear between the sensuality of the steamy environment and industrial rationality. They are devices manufactured for human interaction, for the praise of the body, hedonistic satisfaction, anodized luxury.
*This paragraph references a well-known passage in the history of architecture written by Rem Koolhaas in “Delirious New York”.
Text by Yuri Quevedo
