The apartment located in Higienópolis neighborhood, was still in accordance with the original plan from the 1940s. Despite its spacious rooms, they were all segmented. The walls refrained the flow of people, and also natural light and ventilation. The desire and challenge were to connect the living areas into a single space. The intervention proposal for the social area was to create a permanent connection between the balcony and the kitchen, where the most generous light entrances are located, opening up new perspectives for the use of the space.
While the walls were put down, a decision was made to leave the pillars and beams in exposed concrete and the slabs of the rooms free of interventions, lit only indirectly. A special light fixture was designed and placed where the walls meet the slabs in order to highlight them. Excessive finishings, fake wooden beams and textures were removed from the walls, keeping only the parquet, which was restored. In the living room, a new concrete bench works as a sideboard in accordance with the original structure of the building.
During the architectural survey, we noticed that the balcony had been integrated with the living room. We chose to return to the original plan in which they were separated. A new glass door enables the connection between both areas, when needed.
The kitchen is connected to the living room, through an opening, based on the desire to maintain constant communication between the two rooms. This frame is painted green to highlight the intervention. A terrazzo counter provides greater integration between those spaces. For the ones gathered in the living room, they can sit together and share the cooking experience.
In addition to being isolated, the kitchen was not large enough to include a breakfast table. Therefore, the kitchen area was increased providing room for both a table and a larger counter. This alteration required changing the access to the laundry room, previously tiny but with abundant light. A new window allowed the light pass through the kitchen from the laundry room.
Like most old apartments, this one had few bathrooms for its size and also lacked a lavatory for guests. As the bathrooms were large, it was possible to split one of them into two, a bathroom for the children and, the lavatory.
The apartment had three rooms separated from the social area by a corridor. One of these rooms was adapted to a TV room and its access changed to the social area. By demolishing the wall between the hallway and the TV room, a wardrobe was created facing the intimate corridor area.
