Designed and built in the 1990s by architect Marcos Acayaba, Residencial Butantã Condominium, located at the top of the Kerosene Hill, western region of São Paulo, is presented with a still extremely contemporary architecture; result of a project that was remarkable by the correct use of few materials, such as structural concrete blocks, slate and wood, all left exposed.

The internal renovation project of one of the residences should adapt the architecture to the family needs, especially the ground floor area, which includes kitchen and dining room; place of everyday activities and to receive friends.

With a simple intervention, only in the central part – where there were the only non-structural walls of the building, we chose to transform the staff bathroom (underused by the family) in a restroom, increasing the dining room and kitchen areas, and making better use of pantry space.

With the new layout defined, we started to deepen the discussion about the materials we would use for the renovation, and how the transition from the existing area of the house, with wooden Jatoba floor (which kept), and the new kitchen. We elect the slate stone to coat the kitchen floor, for two reasons: first because it is already one of the materials used in the original architecture design floors, and uses it in this new intervention seemed the most natural choice. Secondly, because it is a national stone, beautiful, durable and affordable.

So to not have an abrupt transition between the existing floor material (wood) and the new kitchen floor (slate), we designed a zigzag line linking both materials, forming a subtle line of transition between the existing and the new. The cabinets carpentry followed this new pagination, being coated in wood where the floor is wood, and colorful where the floor transposes to slate. This transition follows the floor from the kitchen to the restroom, leaving one of its walls covered with the same paging floor stone.

As connoisseurs of design and architecture, the family already had most of the furniture, which was taken advantage of the new layout, complemented only by polypropylene IC01 chairs, designed by Guto Indio da Costa. The lighting pendants from Reka follows the design of the original wooden beams of the house, providing a diffused lighting throughout the space.