brazilian designer and architect fernando campana dies aged 61

fernando campana: 1961-2022

On Wednesday November 16, 2022, Brazilian designer and architect Fernando Campana, brother of Humberto Campana, passed away at the age of 61. With the cause of death still undisclosed, his tragic passing follows the duo’s first exhibition at Luciana Brito Galeria in São Paulo, celebrating their polyvalent vision.

The brothers first founded their studio in 1984, quickly gaining praise and international recognition across the years for their intriguing furniture pieces — and in 2024, the Campana brothers would have celebrated together 40 years of their studio’s activity, 40 years of artistic expression, and boundless research, narrated with extreme freedom in different fields.

Fernando Campana passes away at the age of 61 | image via Estudio Campana

the legacy of the brazilian brothers

In the residential area of Vila Anglo-Brasileira of São Paulo, Fernando and Humberto Campana began building a name for themselves, creating iconic products using recycled and natural ‘ingredients’ in a triumph of shapes and colors, representing somehow the fascinating and peculiar mix of cultures in Brazil. While they both engage in separate creative projects from sculpture to collage, the Campana Brothers have spent three decades operating together in the areas of architecture, landscaping, scenography, fashion and more.

Campana Brothers sitting on their Transwood chair | image © Bob Wolfenson

In a 2021 interview with designboom, Humberto described his close friendship with his late brother Fernando: ‘I’ve been working together with Fernando for 35 years — it’s like a marriage! everybody thinks that we are the same person, but we are completely different from each other. I like to be here every day in the studio. I like the process of being with the artisans, or drawing — I need some discipline. for Fernando, most of the time he stays in his house and comes here with a fresh eye. Fernando likes to draw projects, and I myself like to realize his projects and my projects. sometimes it’s difficult, but we both have the passion for design, and I also like him very much. we are very good friends as well.’

‘Campanas Woods’ (2014) at Bildmuseet, Sweden | image courtesy of Estudio Campana

Some of their most iconic furniture pieces include the 1993 knitted Vermelha Chair, 2015 Pirarucu stool and 2015 Cangaço sofa. At a grander scale, the duo has taken on memorable collaborations with global brands — the most recent one being with Louis Vuitton at Milan Design Week 2022 and Design Miami 2022, where Estudio Campana presented their colorful Cocoon, Maracatu, and Bomboca sofas. Their works have also been extensively celebrated through the ’35 Revolutions’ (2020) exhibition at MAM Rio, a spellbinding 2017 show at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Brazil, ‘Campanas Wood’ (2014) at Bildmuseet in Sweden, and many, many more.

egg-shaped ‘Cocoon’ sofa for Louis Vuitton’s ‘Objets Nomades’ 2022 show | image via Estudio Campana