"A good architect must understand the human dimension of his invention." (Fernando Mendes de Almeida)
Sergio often repeated a phrase: "Architecture defines itself from inside out. The facade is just the result." Your way of seeing the house, the setting, has always been looking from inside out. Its architecture was designed for life to happen in there, based on an idea of harmony that the environment could bring to people. Settings are planned in detail in his drawings. It is not uncommon to see illustrations of activities taking place inside homes or objects that could contribute to the understanding of everyday life in Sergio's drawings. For example, a drawing of a stool for one to put on a shoe on or a reading lamp next to the chair appearing in the middle of an architectural blueprint. When designing a beach house, he drew a woman wearing a bikini in a room who you could see through the open window. They were always drawings of people or objects falling into place in the setting, keeping coexistence in the house in mind.
But the architect was always in contact with the designer in Sergio's work. To Fernando Mendes de Almeida, one of his main professional heirs, construction, in his architecture, always involved the idea of fitting in. "Not in the sense of joinery fitting, rather pillars and beams. He always thought up settings in which objects seemed to be characters. It was all done considering coexistence. Nothing was disconnected from affection. It was not enough for an architect to plan and study his creations technically. To be successful, he needs to understand the human dimension of his invention."
Sergio's architecture was full of elements and always thought through play. The house he built for his family in Petrópolis had a skylight, mezzanine, and stairs in the Santos Dumont style that led to a loft that was open to the living room. His room had a window looking out and another one looking in. It had high ceilings. "It was almost like a big game, but made with the utmost seriousness, just as serious a game is for the child," says Fernando.
The connection between architecture and interior design comes from the time that chairs used to lean against the walls and completed the design of the building as if they were columns or elements of the actual architecture. This can be seen, for example, in the
Crystal Palace, in Versailles. There, the chairs, furniture, sofas, armchairs, auxiliary tables, all positioned against the walls, form an architectural complex with these walls. Sergio brought the concept that interiors should be connected to architecture into his training, a fact often overlooked by architects.
