Andrade Morettin Arquitetos Associados Ltda. submitted the winning proposal, Essential Architecture, for Living Steel's second International Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing. Despite collecting a number of other prestigious awards over the years, the firm regards their winning entry, for the Recife, Brazil location, as their most visible international competition achievement to date.

The practice was started in 1997 by Vinícius Andrade and Marcelo Morettin, who first met at the Faculty of Urbanism and Architecture at the University of São Paulo. The University's strong modernist influence provided a starting point for their design philosophy, which centres on sustainable principles: the use of appropriate construction materials, efficient construction methods and minimising the waste of natural resources.

They also believe passionately in functional development and the architect's responsibility to create in a manner that leads to an open society. The firm is also guided by the belief that architecture is essentially non-organic, that it is an artificial result of a thought-out process of rationalisation and subsequent construction.

Before the firm was established, the founding partners collaborated on a project with Ana Julia Dietsche to design and build an artist's studio. The project took the form of a separate structure added to the roof-top terrace of the existing house, an approach they refer to as superposing and which remains one of the firm's favoured implantation techniques. According to Vinícius Andrade, this approach involves integrating the existing architectural space through the addition of interventions that focus on improving the humanitarian and utility aspects of the space.

Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo

The superposing approach was used in their design proposal for the Faculty of Medicine Master Plan competition held by the University of São Paulo. The competition brief simply stated a need for the addition of state-of-the-art research laboratories to the existing Faculty campus, originally designed in 1920. The firm proposed a separate building for the laboratories, to be superposed on the site, providing a visibly distinct character whilst maintaining homogeneity in function.

However, Andrade and Morettin also saw the need to reorganise the existing layout. They proposed a centralisation of technical and administrative buildings, the introduction of a separate utilities centre and modifying the existing campus entrances, thereby improving circulation and the quality of the campus environment.

The Faculty's Board of Directors recognised the improvements to be gained for both students and staff and chose the design as the winning proposal. The advantages of reorganising the campus layout were deemed so beneficial that the Board decided to implement the modifications as the first phase of the project. The construction of the research laboratories will start when this work is completed.

The Assembleia project formed Andrade Morettin's entry for the 2004 Habitasampa Popular Housing competition, and was awarded First Prize. Located in downtown São Paulo, the project called for an affordable popular housing development. The firm responded by proposing an open building, integrating it with the surroundings and the local community. This was achieved by creating a broad access ramp, under which is a car park for the building's residents, leading to an open ground floor area underneath the apartments.

The open area was projected for commercial enterprises servicing both the building's residents and the surrounding population. In addition, communal areas were proposed for each floor, encouraging residents to interact with one another and creating a stronger sense of community.

Foundation for the Development for Education (FDE)

FDE School

The FDE (Foundation for the Development of Education) School, located in Campinas, in the state of São Paulo and completed in 2004, is another example of the firm's ability to design solutions that are affordable and sustainable, without sacrificing human and functional aspects. Recipient of an Honorary Mention for the Young Architects category granted by the Institute of Brazilian Architects, the project features an open ground floor area accessed by sliding gates that, although a necessity due to security reasons, maintain a visual connection with the surrounding area - a theme that is repeated with the building's translucent façades.

The building's clean and simple lines allowed for a metallic structure and the predominant use of pre-fabricated components, which, in turn, helped to bring the project in under budget and reduced construction times. One of the largest pre-fabricated components used was a steel staircase that provides access to the classrooms and is situated in the main access corridor that divides the building into two halves. The other half is principally occupied by the school's gymnasium, which fulfills additional functions, such as hosting plays and serving as a meeting space for the local community; for this reason, it has a separate entrance that is reached through a winding pedestrian ramp.

Allelyx Laboratories

The liberal use of steel in the firm's renovation of the Allelyx Laboratories in Campinas, in the state of São Paulo, was the result of two overriding factors: a desire to enhance the external appearance of the existing structure, giving it a new identity; and a need to modernize the interior inline with the needs of the company, which operates in the field of biotechnology.

The exterior solution was arrived at through the use of a steel brise soleil, which was superposed onto the existing façade. It provides additional protection from the fierce effects of the sun typical to the region, as well as granting the original warehouse a new character that matches the client's own, high-tech one.

The interior space was earmarked for state-of-the-art, biotechnology research facilities and Andrade Morettin designed nine "spines" arranged as rows, each consisting of an individual work island based around a metallic structure. This arrangement was designed with flexibility and future expansion in mind, and indeed, although only one spine was occupied when the project was finished, in 2005, today they are all in use.

Andrade Morettin were tasked with supplying the framework for an itinerant multimedia art exhibition focused on Brazil - Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture - and the solution they arrived at became part of the exhibition itself. Their design choice for the material employed in the montage of the exhibits, scaffolding, reflects their beliefs in the use of pre-fabricated components as a sustainable and non-wasteful, reproducible construction technique. In fact, this design allowed for the exhibition to simply transport the actual exhibits to each city, including London, Berlin, New York and Chicago, with the scaffolding provided locally and assembled according to the design project. The use of scaffolding was also consistent with Andrade Morettin's design philosophy of producing rigid, geometric forms as a statement regarding humanity's impact on the natural environment.