Furniture designer, architect.

In 1947, he entered the National Faculty of Architecture of the University of Brazil-FNA, in Rio de Janeiro. In 1949, he works as an assistant professor to David Xavier de Azambuja, who, in 1951, invites him to participate in the design of the Curitiba Civic Center, with the architects Olavo Redig de Campos and Flávio Regis do Nascimento, through whom he knows Lucio Costa (1902 – 1998). Rodrigues graduated in architecture in 1951. He moved to Curitiba, where he created Móveis Artesanal Paranaense, in partnership with the Hauner brothers, who in 1954 hired him to lead the interior architecture creation sector of their new company, Forma S.A., in São Paulo. During this period, he came into contact with the production of several European designers, met Gregori Warchavchik (1896-1972) and Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992).

In 1955, he resigns from Forma, and returns to Rio de Janeiro. He nurtured the idea of ​​creating a space for the production and commercialization of Brazilian design, which came to fruition with the opening of Oca, in 1955. In the 1950s, he created the Mole, Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer armchairs. From 1959 to 1960, he carried out the first studies of the SR2-System for the Industrialization of Prefabricated Modulated Elements for the Construction of Housing Architecture in Wood. The prototypes of the buildings are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro – MAM/RJ. The system is used in the construction of the Brasília Yacht Club and two accommodation and restaurant pavilions at the University of Brasília – Unb, in 1962.

With a variation of the Mole armchair, he received first prize at the Concorso Internazionale Del Mobile [International Furniture Competition] in 1961 in Cantù, Italy, chosen from over 400 guests from 35 countries. This award gives international projection to his career as a furniture designer. Produced in Italy by ISA, the armchair was exported to several countries under the name of Sheriff.

With the objective of selling furniture produced in series at affordable prices, in 1963 he created the company Meia-Pataca, which remained in the market until 1968. In that year, he sold Oca and set up a studio in Rio de Janeiro, where he worked with interior architecture. for homes, offices and hotels and carries out projects for the Central Bank in Brasília and the headquarters of Editora Bloch, in Rio de Janeiro, in addition to developing lines of furniture for industrial production. He participates in the exhibition Brazilian Furniture-Premises and Reality, at the São Paulo Art Museum Assis Chateaubriand-Masp.

Receives the Lapiz de Plata [Silver Pencil] Award at the Buenos Aires Architecture Biennale for his body of work, in 1987. Participates, with Lucio Costa and Zanine Caldas (1918 – 2001), in the Mostra Brasile 93 – La Costruzione de una Identità Culturale [Brazil 93 – The Construction of a Cultural Identity], in Brescia, Italy. In 1991, in the exhibition Falando de Cadeira at MAM/RJ, he presented several works made since the 1950s. armchair Says.

• Source: SERGIO Rodrigues. In: Itaú Cultural Encyclopedia of Brazilian Art and Culture. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural, 2022. Available at: http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa230381/sergio-rodrigues. Accessed: October 25, 2022. Encyclopedia entry. ISBN: 978-85-7979-060-7