Palm trees are just as much a part of Brazil as the Amazon and football. Even in the metropolis Sao Paulo with 12 million inhabitants. Sao Paulo is the
largest South American country’s business, finance and cultural centre. Its residents and visitors are internationally rooted as a result. Their shopping
habits are closely related to this, which is precisely why Sao Paulo has a very high density of luxury shopping malls.
The Shopping Cidade São Paulo in the heart of the city is one of the most recently opened shopping malls. Architecturally, the mall’s longest building
belongs to a complex, which the highly visible Torre Matarazzo impressively towers over. Inside the mall, visitors are welcomed by the worldwide
effective charm of big and small brands each with their own message. But four objects on the ceiling magically distract the visitors’ gaze upwards. And there they are the palm trees. As what you can see, looking different every time the light shines on them, are palm tree trunks. Not made out of wood, though, but out of metal. Metal that reproduces the typical way that palm tree trunks grow in harmonious movements.
The “palm tree objects” are made from alphamesh 12.0 ring mesh, which works like a tube spanned over metal rings, which takes on the form of a cylinder tapering towards the middle.

Project: Shopping Cidade, São Paulo | Country: Brazil | Architect / Design: Afalo & Gasperini, São Paulo
Material:  alphamesh 12.0 stainless steel  polished | Quantity: 4 palm trees – height: approx. 12 m / diameter: approx. 2,5 m – in total approx. 325 m²