Emiliano Rio: Arthur Casas Frames Copacabana Through Brazilian Design
A hotel shaped by its threshold
Emiliano Rio begins with a question that is more interesting than the usual promise of a sea view: how can a beachfront hotel participate in the city while protecting the privacy of its guests? Studio Arthur Casas answered through the organisation of the ground floor as much as through its furniture. The result brings Brazilian design into contact with Copacabana’s public life, using a sequence of shared and more secluded spaces to give the building a domestic scale.
The completed project is credited to Studio Arthur Casas, with Chad Oppenheim responsible for the preliminary architectural framework. That distinction matters. The interior story belongs to a broader collaboration, and its most persuasive gestures work across the boundaries between façade, circulation, material and furnishing.
Two routes from the street
A bar close to the entrance gives the hotel an address that can be used by people who are not staying overnight. Beyond it, circulation divides: one route serves the restaurant and business facilities, while another leads towards reception and the private guest areas. Hospitality is therefore organised as a gradient of access. The lobby is neither an isolated vestibule nor an indiscriminately open lounge.
The public rooms maintain a connection with the neighbourhood, while the more protected spaces concentrate on comfort and a smaller sense of scale. Circulation gives this difference a spatial form, shaping movement between the street, reception and private areas.
A palette with an artistic starting point
A work by Roberto Burle Marx at reception anchors the colour story. Emiliano identifies its greens with the landscape of Guanabara Bay and describes the furniture and fabrics as part of that connection. The hotel also situates its design within the memory of mid-century Copacabana, using Brazilian pieces to carry a cultural reference into contemporary rooms.
The furniture brings together Sergio Rodrigues and Paola Lenti, among other designers, without turning the interior into a period reconstruction. The value of this juxtaposition is the conversation between recognisable forms and present-day use. The art is not simply a picture attached to a finished scheme; it helps explain why particular colours and textures recur.
Materials that carry the sequence
Cane, wood, pale Paraná marble, granite and stone give the rooms a tactile register. ArchDaily’s project documentation also identifies three-dimensional timber panels designed by Arthur Casas for the elevators, alongside planted surfaces in the restaurant and rooftop areas. Those details extend the interior language into the spaces between principal rooms, where a hotel’s coherence is often tested.
Outside, perforated fibreglass panels mediate the relationship between the rooms and the beachfront. Their changing configurations turn privacy into something adjustable. Read together with the interior, they establish a consistent theme: views, light and social contact are framed rather than simply exposed. Emiliano Rio’s significance as an interior project lies in that coordination, with Brazilian art and design informing both the atmosphere and the way the building is inhabited.
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