The world faces an increasing demand for humanitarian assistance. The amount of people in need has more than doubled in the past 5 years, totalling 339 million in 2023 (Development Initiatives, 2023). Airports have a vital importance in the immediate response during humanitarian relief operations. In order to comport such operations, airports are required to absorb a certain surge capacity. Nevertheless, the existing guidelines for the design of spaces dedicated to humanitarian relief operations in airports are still incipient, with an apparent lack of involvement of the participation of professionals related to the architectural field. The aim of this project is to explore space planning innovation that can enhance the efficiency of humanitarian relief operations drawing inspiration from design principles of crisis architecture. Moreover, the design strives to demonstrate how the industrial aesthetics characteristic of logistics architecture can be effectively applied beyond this specific typology.

This paper aims to explore the ways in which the designs of Sergio Rodrigues can be comprehended within two European design movements: the Danish Modern, between 1940’s and the 1960’s, and the Italian Radical Design movement between 1966 and 1972. The research aims to answer the following question: ‘How do the chairs designed by Sérgio Rodrigues in the 1950’s and 1960’s express Brasilidade [Brazilianness] while contributing to international furniture design?’. The goal is to provide new insights on the the possible ways in which Rodrigues’ production was influenced by Danish Modern design, through a case study on the Chifruda armchair (1962), and how it subsequently impacted Italian Radical Design, through a case study on the Mole/Sheriff/Moleca armchair (1957/61/63). The rhetorics of design defined by Buchanan, which comprises technological reasoning, emotion, and character, is used as a framework to establish such comparisons. For each of the three aspects mentioned, one chair from the Danish Modern and the Radical Design are compared with the Chifruda and the Mole armchair, respectively. Apart from the case studies, the research methods include a document survey placed within the field of art and furniture design. The results show that Sergio Rodrigues did not only play a central role in shaping the national identity, also referred to as Brasilidade, in furniture design, but also contributed to the establishment of international furniture design trends.