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Architects: Pianca Arquitetura, Sabiá Arquitetos
- Area: 190 m²
- Year: 2021
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Lead Architects: Beatriz Marques de Oliveira, Beatriz Nobumoto, Guilherme Pianca e Nilton Suenaga
Text description provided by the architects. The renovation project dealt with an apartment with unique characteristics: a covered area shaped in a narrow, linear and irregular geometry surrounded by balconies on its three sides. In order to take advantage of the strong presence of these backyards, the project sought to build a house on top of a building. The intervention used the extension locations of this continuous balcony to define the internal programs – seeking to identify the best way to establish dialogues between interior and exterior: next to the unit's access and connected to the wider section of the balcony, the kitchen and living room are configured. Of being; near the corner and overlooking the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, a water tank and external seating area are installed, which is associated with the apartment's main bedroom; and finally, in the more regular geometric extension of the balcony and facing north, the laundry room, second bedroom and guest bathroom are located.
Due to severe deterioration, the roof was redone. Taking advantage of this work action, the project recomposes the structure of the room, enabling a shed to make the lighting of this environment more complex. Still in these common environments, a shelf was created made up of vertical concrete septa, filled with joinery of different colors, in order to assess continuity for environments that have different widths. Rooms had increased ceiling heights after removing the existing stucco. Above the bathrooms, where a wider ceiling height was not necessary, small attics were built to increase the apartment's storage.
On the balcony, to create continuity between these environments with such different characteristics, the parapet is redone in reinforced concrete pieces molded on site. In addition to this piece, a metal railing in a blue hue runs along the entire boundaries of the apartment – organized into two heights: a low one for circulation sections and a higher one that has steel cables to structure the growth of climbing plants. Still in the external areas, a sequence of flower boxes are arranged to define green masses. To characterize the programs of each of the extensions, this flower boxes is combined with sinks, water tanks and benches – offering continuity and individuality to these different balconies at the same time. In the new roofs connected to the kitchen and laundry, steel cabling is provided for the growth of vines to provide shade in these areas.
The project avoids neutral colors and avoids a more sober character: the new internal floor is made of reddish burnt cement, in the bathrooms hydraulic tiles are used – pink with green details in the main bathroom and yellow and pink in the secondary bathroom – finally, in the main bedroom, an ornamental tile carpet with blue, yellow and pink tones is made. On the balconies, the burnt cement extends into the covered areas – seeking to blur the boundaries between internal and external. The rest of the terrace has a large presence of gutters filled with green pebbles and concrete floors with embedded pebbles.
For the new internal linings, a game of colors was also designed to mark the different uses: green in the main nave of the house, mustard in the reading room and pink in the intimate areas. Furniture also operates in this marking logic, always favoring intense and diverse colors: pink in the kitchen, red in the library; green on horizontal surfaces.
