The Monet apartments building is located on a plot in a ' L' shape in the hilly district of Cruzeiro in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and is a building of 13 floors with 18 apartments of approximately 80.00 m2 each, divided on levelsof different configurations generating variations in the apartments shapes showing different terraces, double heights spaces or multi oriented balconies.
The city of Belo Horizonte is a place known as the cradle of modern Brazilian architecture as done by Oscar Niemeyer around Pampulhalake and by many other local architects in several buildings around the city center. In the Monet apartments the first three floors are parking areas accessed by Pratastreet. Right above those levels is the double height main floor of conviviality and public access from Minas Novas street, over this entrance level are 9 floors containing the living units. The rugged topography of the lot provided these two accesses at different levels raising the floors collective areas and promoting good views of the surroundings where the terraces and balconies are open to different directions internalizing the external landscape. The result is a volumetric compositional progression fitting the different dwellings and considering the best sights and solar orientations, generated by panoramic terraces and balconies. This volumetric result is also a response to local building legislation that requires greater clearance as the building grows higher.This apparent limitation generated a critic and creative response to a conservative real estate market and municipal construction code. As the building is occupied the interior spaces of each unit are shaped to the specific personal needs suggesting that the act of living, even in the collective building, is an individual achievement that is proposed in the rhythms of the designed floors, windows and materials.
