DOIS IRMÃOS APT

This penthouse in front of Ipanema beach is in a special situation, in a corner clear, without apparent neighbors, like she’s designed the front of the other buildings, overlooking the sea with a 360 degree view to the Arpoador rock, Morro Dois Irmãos and Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. The client, a father with a pre-teen son, let us open all the apartment areas at the most, turning into a huge veranda, including interior and exterior.

The apartment is like a glass box. The landscape invades the living room/veranda and is even more prized by the materials used, the floor only in rough granite sand tone, the tissues in neutral tones and blues and the works of art that were chosen intentionally to each space. Joinery panels hide all doors and make a soft transition from the social to the intimate and service areas. The 4 released decks that glide over the swimming pool line may form different environments, transforming and extending the living room and the family room when desired.

The veranda fully integrated to the inner part can be closed through metallic blinds and retractable awning protecting the afternoon sun and allow full permeability and protection. The vertical garden accompanies the pool and joins the intimate and social area forming a tropical green corridor. The intimate part is more protected and stays inside the block, accommodating the father and son suites, kitchen and dependencies.

JARDINS APT

The Jardins Apartment, located in the neighborhood of the same name, and with 750 square meters, was developed very closely to clients – art collectors –, especially to accommodate the personal collection, but with the cosmopolitan tone of São Paulo city and going against the grain of the aseptic spaces of an art gallery.

To accommodate the artworks with a certain intimacy and sobriety, the project received demolition wood floors in black cinnamon wood and walls in modular panels covered in off white linen, which sometimes mimics the access doors to the different spaces, and sometimes the audio systems and automation devices. The fabric was chosen after extensive research by the interiors team so that the weft would not compromise the quality of acoustic propagation.

Surpassing the entrance hall, an installation art by the Brazilian sculptor Tunga, attached to the ceiling, welcomes residents and visitors, with an adjacent void, allowing it to be appreciated by the spectator without visual interference. On the side panel of the entrance door, a painting by Basquiat. In the background, a large sculpture by the visual artist Henrique Oliveira leads to the living room.

In the living room, integrated with the other living spaces, 12 panels by Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão stand out above the sofa. The furniture was chosen together with the clients, with a curatorship of Danish design pieces from the 1930s and 1960s in antique shops in New York. In harmony, other contemporary ones, such as the raw wood coffee table by Brazilian designer Hugo França, and pieces designed by the Bernardes Arquitetura team. Color appears in tapestry and artwork, protagonists of the space.

Home theater and office are also integrated into the living space, and the dining room receives two tables specially designed by Bernardes, whose support structures contain small libraries, and can be joined together. In the office, the highlight is the reflective sculpture by the Indo-British artist Anish Kapoor on the wall and another glass sculpture on the floor, by the Brazilian Nuno Ramos.

Cabinets and walls finished in brushed stainless steel sheets give a certain austerity to the kitchen. In the center, a bench with attached seats stands out.

The apartment is also provided with a 17 meter corridor with access to the other spaces (gym and master suite) like a gallery. A special room was also created, used as a collection room for the clients’ collection. It is worth noting that a system of electrified rails and directional spots with special lamps were installed throughout the apartment, so that the lighting does not damage the works and, if they are changed, the lighting design can be easily adapted, as in a museum.

JCA HOUSE

JCA House is a summer residence in Bahia, which would also be used with some frequency during other seasons of the year. A house to walk around barefoot, with a contemporary spatial organization without losing the regional essence.

The house is built on a large wooden platform raised from the ground. On it, two independent volumes receive part of the program: in the smaller block are located the master suite, kitchen, pantry and toilet; in the largest block, five suites. A large gable roof and a rectangular projection unifies the volumes and create new spaces with large ceilings that give way to the living and dining rooms in addition to the circulation galleries. In the basement are located other service rooms and an intimate room with home theater. The large wooden deck connects the house to the pool and to the leisure and coexistence annex located at the other end of the land.

The house takes place on only one floor, avoiding further interference in the landscape. The large Cumaru wooden platform releases the house from the land, which contributes to reducing the effects of humidity. The project also has cross ventilation systems due to the breadth of spaces and openings.

We prioritize the integration between exterior and interior through design decisions such as: continuity of the floor from the exterior to the interior; permeability of the closings – an element hollowed out in the style of a wooden cobogó along the facade of the entire circulation gallery that has the function of filtering the solar lighting at the same time that it generates privacy and allows cross ventilation; frames with shutters in the rooms; glass planes guaranteeing transparency and possibilities of total openings in the common area; creation of internal gardens in the accesses to the suites.

On the other hand, contemporary solutions evoke regional and traditional ambiences and imaginations: the gable roof with clay tiles in contrast to the bold wooden structure; the volumes of the independent blocks of the roof and the resulting free spaces conform to the common areas with a direct relationship with the exterior, valuing the spatiality of the balcony, or with an indirect relationship, as is the case with the circulation gallery, protected by the Brazilian architectural element cobogó (in this case reinterpreted through a wooden weave).

CELSO KAMURA STORE

In this project, originally of angular polygonal shapes, with no obvious connection to the two floors, our initial challenge was to establish an inviting access to the basement where the main activities of the Beauty Salon would be developed. In this way, the stair became an important and determining architectural element of other spaces, seeking a subtle parallelism, it is generous and when narrowing arouses curiosity. The vanishing point that generated this thought made us go further, reinforcing it with an inclined lining of wooden rulers, giving a rhythm to the space.

Upon arrival, the wooden brise soleil and the yellow corian bench define the space with personality and, in the background, the copper lamps and leather chairs warm up the masculine space.
Upon reaching the basement, we glimpse the entire salon on an intermediate level, with a new dimension of the double height. Again we feel invited to go down a wide-staircase, almost a grandstand. Surrounding the perimeter are the cutting benches and in the center a large tree that, in a playful way, makes us cozy. We cannot fail to mention the contribution of light that simulates natural skylights.

Once the concept was defined, we looked for simple materials such as monolithic resin flooring, wood and glass. As a counterpoint, the reception and waiting furniture had straight lines replaced by curves of organic shapes and with a soft touch.

MOREIRA SALLES INSTITUTE

GCP HOUSE

Noble building materials such as copper and wood are allied with the simplicity of forms in this weekend house, 70km outside São Paulo. The residence reveals the priorities of architect Thiago Bernardes: contrast between volumes, interior-exterior transition spaces, diversity of constructive materials and techniques, use of color and generous views. Copper sheets clad the blind walls of both the social pavilion and the bedroom aisle, and also the pivoting aluminum-structured sunscreens that shade the living spaces from the intense afternoon sun.

The choice of materials conveys unity to the spaces and surfaces of the house, but its two main volumes are built differently, structurally speaking, to give the house two basic different atmospheres. The volume housing the bedrooms is built as a reinforced concrete box with generous openings to let in light and ventilation into the bathrooms and sleeping spaces. Its compact shape is raised 40cm above the ground to avoid rising damp and to convey the feeling of intimacy and privacy.

The social volume was designed as a light timber structure, conceived with wooden columns supporting glued laminated timber beams and a gently tilting, light roof resting on long spans and cantilevers. This wooden structure shares its stone flooring with the outside terrace, erasing the limits between inside and outside and making the house, here, extroverted.