The Simão Álvares apartment project consists of transforming a then fragmented penthouse in the Pinheiros neighborhood into a large, dynamic space, compatible with the lifestyle of a young couple of designers. Built in the 1980s, the original typology consisted of small rooms, developed around a long corridor that ran through the apartment from the entrance door to the narrow living room, lit by a single window.
This dead and excessive circulation area was eliminated in the project with the total demolition of the internal masonry; however, the axis demarcated by the corridor
also came to structure the design of the renovation. Crossing the entire length of the space, the axis redistributed the program into two sectors: one for socializing (living room, dining room and kitchen) and the other private (bedrooms and bathrooms). The constructive element that marks this transition is a panel made of naval plywood and covered in tauari wood. The panel's openings make it possible to partially integrate or completely disassociate (by forming an opaque, monolithic plane) the private and common areas.
When opened, the casement doors next to the multi-purpose room enlarge the living room and reveal the bookcase, built into the concrete core where the toilet is located. When closed, for example in the event of a visitor, the access to the bedroom and toilet is via a pivoting door, just after the shrimp panel is interrupted by the concrete pillar.
Another pivoting opening gives access to the couple's private area, made up of a circulation animated by uses. To the left, doors clad in the same to the left, doors clad in the same wood open onto the closet, toilet and shower; while to the right, two concrete benches house a closet and sink. In the recess where the laundry area originally was, the bed was inserted, isolating the bedroom from the other programs connected to the suite.
On the other side of the large panel, the common living areas share a single space, without partitions. Only two fixed elements announce the kitchen worktop, which supports the sofa in the living room, and the metalwork bench, which delimits the dining room that floats on the bench and the existing pillar.
Like the bench, the dining table was specially designed for the specific dimensions of the space. The top, combined with the two beams, produced made of thick glass, directly span the table, which is supported by a metalwork base only at its ends.
Glass is also strongly present in the second panel envisaged by the project: a composition of planes that mediate the balcony openings and isolate the service area, set in the second recess of the floor plan. The mix between the material in its pure transparency and its more translucent variation, the result of the variation, the result of the acid-etching process, arose from the desire to provide large openings without compromising the residents' privacy.
On the balcony, the partial demolition of a high wall, as well as the roof attached to it by the previous resident, revealed the main view towards the garden districts. And to celebrate the conquest of the horizon, a concrete volume used as a bench invites you outside.
Carried out months after the work was completed, the last intervention was necessitated by the adoption of a dog: protective fly screens were suspended by thin profiles of metalwork, attached externally to the guardrail, forming the third and final layer of panels.
