Since 2000, Carla Juaçaba has developed an independent architecture and research-based practice in Rio de Janeiro, now also active in Europe. Her work encompasses both cultural programs and private commissions.
In 2012, the ephemeral Humanidade Pavilion was conceived in collaboration with theater director Bia Lessa and built for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).
Juaçaba is actively engaged in academia through research, teaching, and lectures. Since 2019, Juaçaba has been teaching at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland, where she was appointed Full Professor in 2023.
She received the inaugural ArcVision Women and Architecture Prize in Italy in 2013, as well as the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award in 2018.
In 2018, she was invited to participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale with the Ballast project, curated by Grafton Architects. She also designed and built one of the Vatican Chapels for the Holy See Pavilion, curated by Francesco Dal Co, which has since become part of Italy’s cultural heritage.
Her work and ideas have been featured in several international publications. She was invited by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist to contribute to Brazilian Interviews Vol. 2, Catalogue 4.5, and 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth. She also participated in the Siza Talks at Fundação Serralves.
In 2022, she presented the installation Fil d’air at Open House Geneva. Her work also includes First Stone (2020), presented at the Museu Nacional dos Coches in Lisbon. She is currently participating in the documentary trilogy Groundwork, including the exhibition Sur le terrain at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), which will travel to the Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum and other institutions in São Paulo, Paris, Geneva, and beyond.
More recently, a model of her Vatican Chapel was acquired by the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
In collaboration with curator Olivia Abrahão, she was awarded a 2025 Graham Foundation grant to publish Infinite Because It Mirrors, based on the art-installation developed in São Paulo in 2024.
In 2026 she won the competition «Art Museum Kurpark Bad Ragaz» in Switzerland.