This apartment building is located in a central neighborhood in the city of São Paulo, well-served by urban amenities, commerce, and services. Therefore, it was conceived as a building without common areas or collective activities within the lot (such as sports gyms, party halls, etc.), which is very common in most residential buildings in the city. In this case, the collective space is the city itself, its squares, and its events.
We envisioned a building whose volume delicately fits into the city block, with a height limit of nine stories and a generous setback from the street. This entrance garden serves as a breath for both the building and the street, as well as creating a striking entrance with inclined planes that shape the garden and the access ramp to the building's lobby.
The building is the result of the integration of twelve autonomous units, each with its specific morphology – there are apartments with double-height ceilings, apartments that open onto the ground floor gardens, and others that use the rooftop as a solarium. Nevertheless, we worked extensively to ensure that the association of these units with different characteristics resulted in an overall interesting volume.
To achieve this, there are a series of voids in the building that organize the whole. These are spacious balconies that function as true backyards for the apartments, or gaps that cut through the volume to bring light into the interior spaces. At the entrance, one of these voids, in the shape of a truncated pyramid, guides the visitor from the access ramp to the main hall of the building.
As we have seen, each unit has its own morphology. Furthermore, the interior space of the apartments can be configured with great freedom according to the residents' needs. Kitchens and bathrooms can be relocated, spaces can be fully integrated or divided into specific areas. The project was conceived from the outset with the purpose of creating flexible spaces, as in large urban centers, architectures that can adapt to the mutability and speed of lifestyle changes are increasingly necessary.
