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Architects: Bruno Kim Arquitetura, Firma Arquitetura
- Area: 150 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Vivi Spaco, Manuel Sá
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Manufacturers: Air-Conditioning, Carpet, Civil work, Countertops, Fixtures, Furniture, Kitchen cabinets, Kitchen equipment, Lighting, Metalwork, Shading, Wine Cellar, Woodwork
Text description provided by the architects. Our story with this apartment begins in a moment of great changes in our client's lives. After having lived in the same apartment for more than 20 years and having their children moving out (and also the coming of new grandsons), they felt that it was time to make some changes. So we were commissioned with the mission of remodeling this apartment built in the 60s into a loft, with a new suite, a bedroom for the grandsons - which can be also used as a home office - and a wide and comfortable living room, very well-lit and integrated with the kitchen to accommodate get-together with friends.
From an architectural point of view, the design was guided by the definition of the various rooms that were put together to make a fluid, integrated and open space, with no clashes between the different uses.
We sought to create a new background for the interior which, strategically, just as the background of a theatre stage, would function as a space of storage that can keep daily use belongings (clothing, tableware, etc) and separate the social areas from the intimate rooms at the same time. This background was conceived in woodwork and begins in the living area, moves ahead surrounding the concrete volume that contains the social bathroom and stretches through the laundry, finally reaching the kitchen. In the latter, inspired by the well-known Famrworth house, by Mies van der Rohe, in 1951, the woodwork opens in a gap to fit the 4,5m long ceramic countertop and metallic cabinets of the kitchen.
To contrast with this wooden background, the cube made of cast in place concrete that hosts the bathroom, and the kitchen equipment is located right in the center of the space, serving as a center reference that helps to organize the paths that connect one room to another. This cube was imagined, as a symbolic point of view, as the heart of the home, which shelters the oven (which is a reference to the old fireplaces) and a pink interior bathroom, that is a reference to the childhood memories of the clients.
The clients' profiles allowed the use of many unconventional solutions in remodeling works, which also demanded a high level of detailing both in design and execution and resulted in a high aesthetic outcome.
Another example is the use of woodwork to organize and shape the rooms instead of masonry or drywall, allowing better utilization of the space. The biggest challenge was the solution for the wine cellar due to the aesthetic outcome we wished to accomplish added to the technical need of structure, equipment, and air conditioning.
The materials were chosen to make space blend with the existing elements: the view of the treetops, the parquet flooring, and the concrete columns cast with large wood planks of the building. Furniture and decoration were also defined taking the objects and artwork already owned by the clients into consideration.
