The “Unique Apartment” is born on the first floor of a modern building in a dead-end street in the center of Itaim Bibi, neighborhood of São Paulo.
Home to a young couple looking for practicality and integration in their daily lives, the project the project developed by Natalia Minas (Nati Minas & Studio) and Gabriela Mestriner, aims to merge the work areas with the social areas, making the routine of cooking and living happen together since it is a task done by the residents in the dynamic of the pair.
An architect's house, the project has clean lines, defined functions without repetition and the use of different materials. It uses a mimetic white background to give lightness to the whole and color to the details that should stand out, such as the kitchen backsplash and the staircase core.
Like a canvas, when you enter the Garden there is a vertical garden in the background that covers the entire social area through the permeability of the large frames. The first floor houses the functions of the house and the upper floor the master suite.
The entire social area is summed up in a single block, where the dining table, kitchen island, living room and outdoor area function in an integrated and continuous way, making it possible to use all the rooms and functions together in the same place.
The living area extends to the outdoor area, where the couple receive friends and prepare meals on the barbecue. The garden has plenty of vegetation, both on the walls and the ceiling, to create a comfortable and natural setting for the apartment, which in counterpoint works predominantly with white, black, gray and caramel tones.
The monolithic floor provides a clean base and a blank canvas for the other information above it. The contrast between joinery, metalwork and stone is designed to balance hot and cold touches, propagation and acoustic retention. The metal bookcase that rises from the first floor to the double-height ceiling houses a library of books and objects collected by the couple, as well as structuring the first flight of stairs in metalwork that brings lightness to its design.
The master suite takes advantage of the spaces at the ends to concentrate the closets and desk and leave the center free for breaks and space. Where guardrails are needed for the mezzanine, there are low cabinets to protect against the height and provide more space for personal items. The bed, designed in a bespoke tapestry, is low in height and occupies the quadrant next to the window frames for a view of the treetops and to breathe, bringing the outside in.
The sinks in the master bath are sculpted and designed at an angle and all the joinery was made to measure, creating a concrete box and a sense of continuity and extension.
