Jorge Zalszupin was a Polish-born architect and designer who became a leading figure in Brazilian modernist design. After emigrating from Poland to Brazil in 1949, he initially began designing furniture for his own architectural interiors.
Growing demand for his work led him to establish L’Atelier in São Paulo in 1959, where he developed furniture combining sculptural forms with the rich materials associated with Brazilian design.
Among L’Atelier’s earliest designs was the Carrinho de Chá, or tea trolley, which reimagined an object commonly found in Brazilian homes as a light, sculptural piece of modern furniture. Its distinctive oversized brass wheels recalled the prams Zalszupin remembered from his childhood in Poland. Combined with a fine iron frame and curved wooden elements, they gave the trolley its characteristic sense of movement and balance.
The Carrinho de Chá also demonstrates Zalszupin’s ability to adapt ambitious designs for production. The earliest version featured an upper tray carved with organic forms in pine or oak, but this proved expensive to manufacture. Zalszupin subsequently developed a version with a jacaranda-laminate tray and simpler rectangular forms, retaining the character of the original while making the design more practical to produce.
