Throughout the years, the neighborhood of Vila Madalena in São Paulo, Brazil, became the perfect place for photo studios, artists and architects. As it became more urban, old buildings were given new uses and the space we discovered was also transformed from its original configuration of two residential apartments into what is today our office.
As I entered what seemed to be a secret area, with no direct interface with the street, I fell immediately in love. Only a small and ordinary entry door connected the street and the inside space. This door opened up to a long 20 steps stairway leading to a fragmented concrete slab with two apartments above the woodshop where the owners/brothers lived.
To transform this space into our new office, Candida Tabet Arquitetura, we removed all of the interior walls and dropped ceiling tiles; After completely opening up the space, the only element allowed to interrupt its continuity was the restroom. However, its height was slightly diminished in order to allow a complete view of the newly exposed roof structure, composed of lovely wood scissor trusses under classic ceramic roof tiles, pointing to a new vocation of pure and simplistic finishes and solutions. A few windows were closed and others renovated by using frameless sheets of glass. The remaining concrete slab became a small mezzanine connected to the space below by a stair made from stacked solid wood beams.
The larger area and what I call the creative laboratory were separated by a cozy double-sided fireplace.
Our new door was beautifully composed of solid rustic Garapeira wood boards and opened up to the stairwell that leads you to our unexpected space. The doorknob is made with a large playful sphere that reminds us of a clown’s nose communicating the new vocation of the space.
Hanging from the roof rafters, are bare lamps distributed around the ambiances. Nothing is tinted. Elements are light or dark, white or black. Only the ceramic tiles carry a color that is inherited from the base material they are made from.
