Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Design Team: Estúdio Cajalima

Area: 60 m²

Year: 2025

Lead Architects: Guilherme Cajaíba, Micherlane Lima

Civil Engineering & Consulting: AGGO Engenharia

Photography: Manuel Sá

Design Features: Sanduteca occupies 60 m² inside Galeria Metrópole in central São Paulo. When the design team took possession in August 2025, the shop had stood vacant for more than a decade. Its ageing infrastructure and compact footprint had to accommodate a professional kitchen, a visible sandwich-assembly area, a restroom and seating for different lengths of stay. Estúdio Cajalima therefore develops the idea of a 'sandwich library' as more than branding, translating flavours, seasonings and preparation into a spatial order that can be watched, read and inhabited.

The centre of attention is not a finished product display but the act of assembling each sandwich. A white-tiled working counter extends into the depth of the shop, facing both the entrance and a long bench. Customers seated at the counter, in the quicker ground-floor seats or on the more private mezzanine encounter the same process from different heights and distances. The open kitchen supports efficient service while acting as a reading table where the culinary narrative is made visible.

Plan and section work together to manage the density of the 60 m² interior. Kitchen equipment, assembly, ground-floor seating, entrance display and an independent restroom are arranged along a legible linear route. A stair at the rear reaches the mezzanine, where larger tables allow a slower meal without losing sight of the activity below. Takeaway waiting, quick visits and longer dining are not sealed into separate rooms; they gather around one productive core as overlapping modes of occupation and observation.

The material palette places the modernist history of Galeria Metrópole beside a contemporary food venue. White ceramic tiles, mass-produced in Brazil since the early twentieth century, meet red-pigmented burnt cement associated with northeastern Brazil and widely used in the 1960s and 1970s. The restroom becomes an entirely red volume. Red furniture, blue perforated metal panels and a custom pendant made from the same mesh introduce an industrial layer without turning the compact room into a decorative theme set.

Stainless-steel counters and shelves meet the practical demands of a professional kitchen, while glass sconces with gold-toned bases and a caramel-coloured sink evoke the familiarity of Brazilian domestic interiors. The original shopfront composition of Galeria Metrópole is retained; colour, light and the visible rhythm of preparation are enough to draw people inside. Sanduteca becomes a library catalogued through movement, sightlines and material memory, allowing visitors to read not only the menu but also how food is made and how a long-empty modernist shop returns to urban life.

Design Team: Estúdio Cajalima is a São Paulo-based architecture and interior design practice led by Guilherme Cajaíba and Micherlane Lima. Publicly available records identify Lima as a graduate in Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo. Both architects were also selected for a 2019 design workshop at Instituto Tomie Ohtake that explored relationships between architecture and furniture under the guidance of Ruy Ohtake.

Verified public information about the young practice remains limited, so its size, founding date and awards should not be overstated. Sanduteca nevertheless offers a clear view of its method: existing conditions, operational flows and necessary equipment are established first, then sightlines and material contrasts give the interior its identity. Vintage references are not staged as nostalgia; they are placed beside contemporary metalwork, colour and lighting so that memory remains active in everyday use.

Guilherme Cajaíba and Micherlane Lima served as lead architects for Sanduteca, with civil engineering and consultancy by AGGO Engenharia. Preserving the original shopfront of Galeria Metrópole, the team reorganised a 60 m² unit that had been vacant for more than a decade into a compact venue combining a professional kitchen, visible preparation, dining and public observation.