GAVEA BUILDING

Developed for a land on a busy street in the Gávea neighborhood, in the south of Rio de Janeiro city, this building accommodates five floors (ground floor, three floors and roof) and one basement, through a predominantly horizontal volume 15 meters wide by 30 meters deep, surrounded by neighboring tall buildings.

To better accommodate the residential program and concentrate the largest number of apartments in the low-rise project, it was decided to have the first apartment on the ground floor, while four standard apartments are placed on the first and second floors, and two duplex apartments occupy the third floor and coverage, totaling seven housing units.

The almost total occupation of the land and the inexistence of lateral setbacks, brought the challenge of how to ensure adequate natural lighting and ventilation to the interior of all apartments, solved through two courtyards: the first in the central area on the left side and the second in the back of the lot, which fulfills the role of the first unit’s balcony.

The vertical circulation core, equipped with a stair and two elevators, is provided in the volume so that each apartment (on the first two floors) is organized in a square space of 15×15 meters, mirrored on both sides, with the exception of the ground floor unit that has a service suite. Each housing unit consists of a living and dining room, an integrated kitchen and laundry area, and three suites that open onto a balcony and courtyard.

On the façade, the floor of the 2.5-meter-deep balconies in steel structure become eaves to the lower floors and the closing of the ends slopes diagonally, creating a certain graphic identity to the building. These inclined planes, in turn, have a system of translucent curtains, which can be closed or opened, according to the level of privacy and solar protection required. Inside, the floor and lining are finished with wooden rulers, while the outside is covered with metallic sheets with graphite gray paint that highlight the zigzag.

PIPA HOUSE

Pipa House was developed as a prototype by Bernardes Arquitetura, in partnership with a construction company and a couple of entrepreneurs, who wanted to build a product that could be replicated and sold in modules to other clients, generating a fast work experience, with guaranteed deadlines, energy efficiency and technological control.

The house was designed for building efficiency through an industrialized system that allowed its rapid execution and very low waste production. Its structural system in glued laminated eucalyptus wood (glulam) makes the house adaptable to different sites, allowing its reproduction in numerous slope variations while providing a great diversity of composition and the possibility of different finishes. The frame system, also in glued laminated wood, guarantees stability to the structural profiles.

The lifting of the house off the ground ensures water tightness and ventilation for the floor slab, as well as a visit to the facilities that are distributed underneath it. The liner, with the docking system, allows adjustment and visitation to the HVAC systems. The house has individualized heating systems and air conditioning and electrical installations divided in modules, simplifying its maintenance and operation. The external walls in prefabricated concrete panels, with a ventilated facade system, guarantee good thermal response and zero maintenance, due to the need of no retouching to the painting layer. The house was designed for good thermal insulation requiring low to zero maintenance. The team developed a product with high-quality materials and environmentally friendly technology, combining affordability and contemporary design.

ADEGA SANTIAGO RIO

The restaurant Adega Santiago, which already had three units in the city of São Paulo, opened its first unit in Rio de Janeiro in the old event space of a mall in Barra da Tijuca. The new restaurant, which has gained a privileged location that opens to the landscape of the Tijuca Lagoon, had as main challenge to convert a large space in a more intimate environment. Its spatial organization privileges the visual connection of the hall with the lagoon, while its operational areas are concentrated close to the loading and services access of the mall and close to the original blind walls of the salon. The connection of the restaurant with the view of the lagoon also occurs through the interior design and furniture, which reinforce this relationship through the design of more welcoming cabins and a spatial distribution that highlights it.

The finishing materials, which combine flooring, panels and furnishings in dark woods (cumaru, freijo and peroba rosa respectively) to leather coverings, were applied in more contemporary designs that are inspired by the intimate ambience already adopted in other units. The closing of the restaurant takes place through pivoting lattice panels that make the operation of the restaurant more flexible. These can either restrict the use of the salon outside peak hours or to private events, or allow it to expand to areas near the mall’s balcony that overlooks the lagoon. The lighting of the restaurant is through large circular pendants (two to three meters in diameter), lightly spaced, that eliminate the impact of the original large double height. At night, these pendants create a visual effect of large illuminated discs that seem to float above the salon.

MAJ HOUSE

Built in a predominantly residential neighborhood in São Paulo, the MAJ House was designed based on the simplification of material and visual permeability.

Surrounded by other houses and lacking privileged views of the horizon, it was decided to concentrate the main mass in the front portion of the lot, directing the view to the garden in the rear area. From this, structurally, the house is designed in a very simple way: on a horizontal plane in concrete (slab) raised 50 centimeters from the ground, four reinforced concrete gables are subtly arranged – two of them at each end, the two being central diagonally – and that in turn configure trapezoidal volumes that accommodate the support spaces (kitchen, pantry, laundry, and service areas in the first of them; and home theater and toilet in the second). This solution made a 13-metre-long central free span that accommodates the living and dining room and is closed in glass frames that can be retracted, allowing integrating the internal space to the outside.

The central gables extrapolate the limits of the perimeter of the floor, towards the garden, so that they seem to float about the lawn. Perpendicular to the two concrete volumes, the eucalyptus glued laminated wood framework is placed about this, accommodating the intimate areas on the upper floor. This volume, in turn, is entirely built on a light structural system made of wood, developed in partnership with ITA Construtora, which allowed for quick execution, low waste production and quality of the parts.

On the ground floor, the counterpoint of the light tones of the surfaces of the concrete walls and slab floors, together with the warmth of the wood in the ceiling and furniture, makes the space cozy. In the living room furniture, iconic pieces of Brazilian design stand out, such as the São Conrado sofa and the Siri armchair by Cláudia Moreira Salles, composed together with other modern classics, such as the Akari-10A lamp by the Japanese-American designer Isamu Noguchi. Like the architecture itself, the idea of lightness is conveyed to the furniture, with pieces that the lower base does not fully touch the floor, but, raised, have structures that subtly touch the surface, such as the sofa by the Italian brand Poliform. The color is minimally introduced in the decorative objects, cushions and upholstery of the armchair by Claúdia Moreira Salles.

The central dining room table in solid wood, has the same wooden finish as the furniture in the living room, and a special design by Bernardes Arquitetura, accommodating up to 12 people. In the composition, 10 classic chairs of Scandinavian design, Wishbone and Round, by Hans Wegner, acquired by Artesian; and Hoffmann Chair, originally designed by Austrian Josef Hoffman. In the gourmet area, the cabinets are covered in matte ebony wood and the top and counter in Siena granite.

On the upper floor, wood predominates on the floor and joinery with Bernardes design. Children’s rooms have study spaces with storage areas. The master suite has a closet. At the back, the veranda integrated to all bedrooms and home office, with wooden ceiling and floor, receives diagonal vertical metal pieces with horizontal wooden brise-soleils, protecting from direct sunlight and allowing the breeze to flow.

Despite being an urban house, the palette of natural materials in construction and furniture, added to the integration solutions, brought the feeling of a summer or weekend home, in contrast, the visual permeability to the tropical garden with banana leaves, coconut trees and philodendrons, designed by Daniel Nunes.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

ARPOADOR HOTEL

The project for the renovation of the Hotel Arpoador goes beyond the idea of ​​a cozy hotel, creating an inviting space, where interior and exterior are blended. Its lobby is integrated into the bar through a patio bathed in natural light, a continuous line connecting Francisco Otaviano and Francisco Bhering streets. The façade is composed of a large wooden panel loose from the structure, which frames the views for those who see from within and creates a subtle order for the building.

The beach climate permeates the entire choice of materials used in the project, from wooden flooring (alluding to a boat deck) to the straw, fibers, linen and cotton used in the interior spaces. On the top floor, the terrace presents a triangular pool with sea views. On the side overlooking the city, a space dedicated to wellness with sauna, room for massage, and another for exercises. The Arpoador offers 49 rooms.

All furniture and fabrics were developed from the concept of total work of art, which presupposes an integration between various forms of artistic expression. The woodwork was designed especially for each space of the hotel, from the rooms to the common areas. In allusion to the nautical architecture, the furniture of the rooms is made of pieces that fit together, allowing different uses. Both the fabrics of the interiors and the uniforms of the team had their colors inspired by the shades of the Arpoador beach, having been exclusively developed by Bernardes Arquitetura for the project.