Founded in 2020 in São Paulo, Brazil, Studio Palma emerged from the meeting of visual artist Cléo Döbberthin and architect Lorenzo Lo Schiavo. Together, they have developed a resolutely multidisciplinary practice spanning architecture, furniture, scenography, graphic design, and interiors. Their approach is driven by formal freedom and a constant desire to resist being confined to a single typology.
Their story began well before the studio was established. Cléo and Lorenzo first met while studying architecture at the University of São Paulo. Early on, they felt a disconnect with what they perceived as an overly rigid modernist education. Shaped by the internet, Tumblr, social media, and a wide range of visual references, their generation sought a more liberated, expressive architecture, one capable of reflecting the complexity and chaos of the contemporary world. Their paths diverged for a time: Cléo turned toward visual arts at FAAP in São Paulo, while Lorenzo continued his architectural training in London. They reunited nine years later, in 2019, and decided to merge their visions. The seed of Palma was planted.
