Weinfeld places as much emphasis on the exterior of a building as he does the interior, and is as interested in the grand gesture of a skyscraper as he is in the detail of a serving tray. This well-rounded adaptability defines his work—a mélange of everything from banks to bars, conceptual installations and art galleries, furniture and even feature films. A longtime partnership with Rogério Fasano, the scion behind the eponymous global string of luxury hotels and restaurants, along with other commercial projects such as shops for Havaianas (2009) and Forum (2000, 2004), illustrate Weinfeld’s ability to tailor his design to reflect the voice of a brand. Even the dozens of private residences he’s designed over the years have been carefully selected after long deliberation with the client. (Weinfeld turns down as many projects as he accepts. It’s about “mutual respect,” he says.) These minimal yet sumptuous residential spaces—the majority of which are located in Brazil—are both intimate and airy with blunt geometric lines softened by elemental materials such as stone, wood, and glass. Casa Piracicaba (2009), for example, is composed of three cantilevered volumes that become floating rectangles built into a sloping landscape, making the gardens adjacent to this 21,500-square-foot home accessible from any floor.

 Stacked shapes also define Casa Grécia (2009). Nestled behind high walls on a corner lot in a quiet São Paulo neighborhood, five immense glass-enclosed patios resemble theater stages, reflecting Weinfeld’s love for performance and art. “I would not describe my work as theatrical, but I am certainly influenced by the theater just as I am by many other arts,” says Weinfeld, who has also directed 14 short films of his own and the feature-length filmFogo e Paixão, or Fire and Passion, which won the São Paulo Art Critics Association prize for best new director when it was released in 1988.

Weinfeld’s ability to look beyond architecture to find inspiration in music, food, literature, antiques, theater, and art is what lends his work a sense of playfulness and wit. “I think humor is the strongest streak in my personality, even though most people don’t take me for funny.” His 1995 satirical piece Necklace, Earrings, and the Roadway Ring, a twisted pretzel-shaped model of intertwining freeways on view at the Museo de Arte de São Paulo, riffs off the city’s notoriously chaotic traffic—a social criticism cloaked in a humorous jab.

Still, Weinfeld’s greatest accolades rest soundly in architecture. He has garnered over 100 awards within the last four decades, and his reputation continues to stretch its reach. A recent exhibition of his work at New York City’s Espasso Gallery (his first in the United States), entitled A to Z, featured two objects made especially for the show: a cradle and a coffin. “This idea expresses my wish to design from the beginning of life to the end," he said in an interview about the show, which was accompanied by a monograph featuring a number of his commercial designs. Thirteen new film shorts related to various projects were projected alongside a series of furniture and objects designed by Weinfeld, including a memorable, portable bar cart. “It’s called Totó, which is a very popular name for dogs in Brazil,” he says. “In some ways, the bar is like the dog you pull on a leash around the house, or the alcohol that follows you.” Last year Weinfeld embarked on new collaboration with US-based manufacturer Geiger International—his first North American client—for whom he designed Domino Storage: an elegant line of casegoods comprised of 12 scalable configurations and in various heights and widths.

Though wildly varied, Weinfeld’s body of work, if taken together, would resemble the improvised cadence of a jazz ensemble—loose yet technically refined. “I will always find something I like or identify with, whatever the art style or movement,” he says. “I see architecture as a whole thing, as if I was an art director.” Suspending many assumptions, Weinfeld is able to transcend categorization; he’s a pluralist who resists labeling.