Santos Apartment | Atelier PECLAT+CHOW

Santos apartment was undertaken for a young couple in their late 20’s. They requested a timeless, elegant and serene home. The 1950’s apartment is located in the trendy neighborhood of Jardins, São Paulo. The renewal of it’s 120sqm was designed to integrate the living space fully, while clearly defining three different functions: kitchen, living room and home office, whose rhythm is given by a thoughtful sequence of volumes and voids.

 The wooden entrance tunnel intends to guide and intensify the sensorial experience of those who enter from the dark hallway to the bright and clean living spaces of the apartment. The terrazzo floor, widely used in Brazil during modernism, with its opaque surface and subtle non-homogeneity, intersects with exposed white-painted brick walls and textured walls hiding the storage areas and doors. The white metallic grid ceiling, along with the Terrazzo floor unifies all the apartment rooms and poses as an additional layer of textures and rhythm to the whole.

 The curation of materials is very precise to reinforce both the cohesive identity and the fact that no detail was left unchecked. Door handles, switches, faucets, and even windows, were entirely designed by Atelier PECLAT+CHOW and produced locally. Not as neutral as one might think at first sight, the apartment shelters a curated selection of modern Brazilian pieces, such as Zanini ́s and Hauner ́s armchairs, together with international icons, anonymous articles, and a few art pieces.

 Further emphasizing the importance of design and architecture as a single, coherent project, Atelier PECLAT+CHOW also designed the white sofa and armchair, the marble coffee table, the kitchen table, and some lighting fixtures, along with all built-in furniture

​This project was about creating a secluded, serene urban retreat using a soft, luxurious, yet restrained material palette. The polished concrete floors run throughout the house, as the cemented walls and ceilings, creating a very strong identity and quiet thread. The atmosphere of the house is uniquely tranquil, comfortable and surprisingly elegant. 

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 TEXT

Federico Concilio

PHOTOGRAPHY

Luiza Maraschin

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