Who they are
DW Santana Associados was born in 1992 as the Brazilian arm of the partnership between Sergio Santana and Design Workshop, a landscape architecture firm based in Aspen, Colorado — the origin of the “DW” initials. The firm now operates under the legal name Sergio Santana Planejamento e Desenho da Paisagem, in the Água Branca district of São Paulo. Managing partner Sergio Santana holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University (1976); while still a student he interned at Roberto Burle Marx’s office in Rio de Janeiro (1974) and received the Loeb Fellowship from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1988. He is a member of ABAP and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Language and signature
The firm works across varied scales, from the residential garden to urban and environmental planning of large areas — master plans, site-implementation studies, resorts, condominiums and urban design. Sergio Santana’s career was compiled in the book Planejamento e Desenho da Paisagem – Sergio Santana (Editora C4).
Reference works
- Environmental recovery of the Mina Águas Claras, in Belo Horizonte/MG — an urban development and environmental rehabilitation master plan that prompted the opening of the São Paulo office, in 1992.
- Landscape design for EZ Parque da Cidade, by Eztec, delivered in 2023 — including the Sky Gardens, the garden-wrapped leisure areas installed on the intermediate floors of the two UNStudio towers. The colours of the lobby armchairs were taken from the planting of each Sky Garden.
