Gustavo Araújo Penna (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1950) is a Brazilian architect and urbanist. He graduated in 1973 from the School of Architecture at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where he later taught for three decades.
In 1973, he founded Gustavo Penna Arquiteto & Associados (GPA&A), an architecture and urbanism practice based in Belo Horizonte, with a presence in São Paulo. Over more than five decades, Penna has developed a body of work spanning cultural, institutional, residential and urban projects, with a particular focus on the relationship between architecture, memory and identity.
His major works include the Guignard School and Expominas in Belo Horizonte; the Monument to Freedom of the Press in Brasília; the Japanese Immigration Memorial in Pampulha; the Congonhas Museum, the Sant’Ana Museum and the Regina Mundi Museum in Minas Gerais; the New Mineirão Stadium, developed by GPA&A in collaboration with GMP; SESI Lab, resulting from the rehabilitation of the former Touring Club building designed by Oscar Niemeyer in Brasília; and the Brumadinho Memorial.
His work has received numerous national and international distinctions, including The International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum, a World Architecture Festival award, Architizer A+Awards, the Prix Versailles and several iF Design Awards.
Penna’s projects have been presented at the São Paulo International Architecture Biennale, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Buenos Aires Biennale, the World Architecture Triennale in Belgrade, the Institut Français d’Architecture in Paris, and Casa da Arquitectura in Portugal.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fundação Oscar Niemeyer and Fundação Dom Cabral, and a founding member of the Academy of Portuguese Language Schools of Architecture and Urbanism (AEAULP).
