José Zanine Caldas

José Zanine Caldas was born in Belmonte, at the southern coast of Bahia, in 1919. Son to a doctor, Zanine was an autodidact who, from a young age was fascinated with his environment and especially trees.

While most architects of his generation studied extensively, Zanine Caldas developed his own style through experimentation. At the age of 20, he decided to exchange Bahia for Rio de Janeiro, where he opened a workshop for architectural scale models and had the chance to work with pioneering modern architects such as Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. Although excluded by a large part of the architectural community because of his lack of education, these prominent professionals weren’t judgmental and admired Zanine’s skills and problem-solving ability.

In 1948, Zanine Caldas, in partnership with Sebastião Pontes and Paulo Mello founded the joinery company, Móveis Artístico Z in São José dos Campos. Large scale furniture with modern design and affordable prices: this was the great advantage and key of success of the company in Brazil. It maintained production for almost two decades, however, Zanine’s design ideals were opposed to the market of the time, which was either based on the production of handmade furniture in solid wood, or on pieces produced in series with an unattractive design. Breaking these paradigms, Móveis Artístico Z revolutionised manufacturing pieces with improved design and a popular appeal: semi-mass produced, sinuously shaped plywood furniture.

While travelling extensively through Africa (and later China), Zanine immersed himself in various cultures. Deeply moved by the local customs of the places he visited, Zanine started to see how similar humans are across the globe, maintaining similar self-sufficient practices, while living in harmony with nature.

And thus, in 1950, only 2 years after starting Móveis Artístico Z, he decided to leave the company and return to his home state of Bahia. Inspired by the local craftsmen who carved boats and furniture from fallen trees, Zanine began experimenting with chiselling and carving large, sculptural works which became the focus of his later career. Zanine became a big advocate for preservation and in the 1980s, he established the Foundation Center for the Development of the Application of Brazilian Woods (DAM), in an effort to educate and attempt to reverse the rampant destruction of Brazilian rainforests.

“When I feel that our country is in the midst of an urban consumerist epidemic and is eagerly deprecating the forests, I remember my father: We must cure it.”

Up until his death in 2001, Zanine kept his natural visions alive, and would plant a new tree in place of any tree that was taken down for one of his projects. An interpreter of the relationship between man and nature; creativity and sophistication; uniqueness and repeatability, José Zanine Caldas remains an inspiration for current and future generations. ~H.

Interesting literature:

Zanine: Sentir E Fazer, Suely Ferreira Da Silva, Brazil,1994.