radical and spherical 'casa bola' to host upcoming são paulo exhibition ABERTO5

aberto returns to brazil for its fifth edition

For ABERTO5, the itinerant exhibition series is set to open next month at Casa Bola, Eduardo Longo’s spherical residence in São Paulo, opening the architect’s private home to the public as the setting for its fifth edition.

From March 7th to May 31st, 2026, ABERTO returns to Brazil after its Paris chapter at Le Corbusier’s Maison La Roche (read more here) and shifts its attention to one of the city’s most unique dwellings. The choice of venue continues the platform’s habit of taking over architecturally significant houses — often times never-before-seen — and using them as an immersive backdrop for contemporary art and design.

images courtesy ABERTO

a são paulo home designed as a floating ball

Casa Bola, the sculptural home of the upcoming ABERTO5, seems to float above the roof of Eduardo Longo’s home in São Paulo. The spherical structure reads from the street as a pale volume suspended in air. The eight meter diameter ‘ball’ hovers over a concrete base, its curved shell catching light in soft gradients across plaster and ferrocement. A narrow stair leads upward along the edge, compressing the approach before the interior opens into a single continuous surface.

The architect built the structure by hand between 1974 and 1979 using ferrocement over a mesh of recycled steel tubes. Walls, furniture, lighting, and sanitary fixtures share the same material language. Corners disappear and floors tilt gently into partitions.

ABERTO5 will open inside Eduardo Longo’s Casa Bola in São Paulo

sixty contemporary works to transform the home

For ABERTO5, the organizers treat the geometry of Casa Bola as a working condition. More than sixty new and recent pieces by Brazilian and international artists will be installed across roughly 1,000 square meters that include three levels, the terrace, and the spherical volume itself. Works are conceived in response to the house, placed along ramps, tucked into niches, or suspended against the dome so that visitors move with the architecture.

Paintings, sculptures, and installations track the shifts in scale inside the sphere. A curtain of aluminum and coated steel by Daniel Steegmann Mangrané greets visitors at the entry. Elsewhere, sculptural interventions by Sarah Lucas and Erika Verzutti punctuate the tight passages.

Multimedia canvases by Laís Amaral and Paloma Bosquê register the curvature of the walls, while suspended works by Tomás Saraceno and Leonor Antunes trace new lines through the air, mapping the interior as a three dimensional field.

the exhibition occupies the spherical ferrocement house built by hand between 1974 and 1979

aberto5 to take over the architect’s current home

Casa Bola carries particular weight because Longo still lives there. The exhibition occupies a home that remains active, with traces of daily routines embedded in the plan. Windows are round and carefully placed, framing fragments of the surrounding neighborhood and the high rises beyond. Light enters as small, bright circles that drift across the floor during the day.

This proximity between domestic life and curated work shapes the atmosphere. Visitors encounter archival drawings, sketches, and models that outline Longo’s broader research into spherical housing, alongside new commissions. The effect is direct. Architecture, memory, and contemporary production share the same surfaces, each adjusting to the constraints of the other.

visitors enter through tight stairs into a continuous interior shaped by curves and light

public artwork beyond the house

The 2026 edition also extends into the city through ABERTO Rua, a parallel street project along Faria Lima. Site specific works by Brazilian artists will occupy sidewalks and plazas, engaging nearby buildings by architects such as Ruy Ohtake and Isay Weinfeld. The gesture connects the intimacy of the house with the scale of the avenue, linking private experimentation with public space.

more than sixty artworks will respond directly to the buildings geometry and surfaces