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No matter where we are or what we’re doing, design, technology, and innovation permeate our daily reality. These are also the pillars of the work of Brazilian architect Bárbara Jalles, who was invited by Kohler Brazil to present our new IGTV series Kohler Sensations for the Kohler Brazil Instagram page.
In the series of five episodes, Jalles takes viewers on a virtual tour to explore themes of design, innovation, water, and technology in São Paulo City, Ribeirão Pires, and Porto Feliz. “All of these subjects are present in my personal and professional life. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to lead such versatile lives,” says Jalles, who is one of the rising names in Brazilian architecture (and whose Instagram profile boasts 45,000 followers). Having graduated from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) in 2009, she went on to study at Parsons and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York before working for major names like Ana Maria Vieira Santos, Marcelo Rosenbaum, and Robert Siegel Architects.
Conceived by our Brazil marketing team and led by Ana Paula Passarelli, the concept was to shoot five episodes in places related to the themes, in order to engage architects and interior designers with content rich in history and context.
“We work a lot with digital influencers, but we haven’t had an architect as a spokesperson. Then came the idea of calling on Barbara to engage this audience”, Passarelli explains. “In the end, we had excellent feedback from customers as well, because when something’s on social media, everyone ends up watching it.”
Jalles and the team decided to spotlight lesser-known places that rarely feature in traditional or social media. This approach can be seen right away, with the first episode on design taking the team to Ribeirão Pires, a city in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, to visit the Torre de Miroku. The 105-foot tower was built using Japanese construction techniques, with Chinese and Buddhist influences, and the peaceful mountain location features enchanting waterfalls and gardens.
One of the main objectives of the video series was to capture the atmosphere of the five locations — Miroku Tower, Estaiada Bridge, Instituto Butantan, Billings Reservoir, and Boa Vista Farm — and this is where cameraman Franklin Maimone’s expertise came in. Maimone proposed a documentary-type look and feel that didn’t overlook the details of the featured locations. “We prioritized the spaces to reinforce the video’s theme. In addition to close-up images and details of Barbara and her interactions with the setting, we used drone footage to enhance what she was saying in the episode,” he explains.
These aerial images are most impressive in the “Innovation” episode, shot at Estaiada Bridge, and the “Water” video of Billings Reservoir, the largest water-storage facility in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region. In this episode, Jalles discusses the importance of the dam to the community and how its pollution is affecting both humans and nature. Meanwhile, the episode on Estaiada Bridge, officially named the Octávio Frias de Oliveira Bridge, shows the iconic symbol of São Paulo as one of the most innovative architectural works in the whole country.
Maimone shares some backstage secrets that reveal the complexity of filming the six-minute videos. “When we shot at the dam, it was a very cloudy day and the images turned out kind of gray so we needed to cut them with drone images taken on another day,” he says. “When we were filming at the bridge, there was very loud construction noise right beside us. But these problems make the work exciting, because we put our knowledge into practice to get the best results possible.”
The team shot all five episodes at the beginning of 2021, during Brazil’s summer and the southeast region’s rainy season, so the process was not without its challenges. In the episode “Experiences,” Jalles was already in Porto Feliz on her way to Boa Vista Farm when the weather turned. “There was heavy rain, and I called the team to ask them what to do. But with the crew on the way, there was nothing to do but hope the weather would improve — and that’s what happened!” she recalls. “It sounds like a joke, but in the end, it rained again — and I took the opportunity to run in the rain. The result was wonderful!”
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