In Sao Paulo, the Higienopolis neighborhood is home to some of the most important references in Brazilian modernist architecture, featuring works by Rino Levi, Ramos de Azevedo, Vilanova Artigas, Franz Heep and Artacho Jurado. We designed the renovation of one of these remarkable buildings, transforming a 1958 property into a contemporary home.

Our project for the Higienópolis apartment adapts a traditionally compartmentalized layout into a fluid environment, where movement is free and unrestricted. With 500 square meters and a layout once marked by rigid spaces, our design breaks pre-established boundaries, allowing for a new kind of spatial appropriation in which everything is connected. Walking through the apartment becomes an intuitive flow.
The building’s structure guided our design decisions, leading to a proposal that contrasts this rigidity with a new diagonal layout. Oriented along the east-west solar axis, the diagonal cuts through the apartment, not only redefining the floor plan but also enhancing spatial perception, amplifying the experience of time within the home and renewing the relationship with the city.

A terrazzo walkway runs through the apartment, integrating zones. This path eliminates the traditional separation between front and back areas, reinterpreting old divisions and connecting what was once an isolated service area. From this walkway, other complementary floor treatments unfold. In the scars left by the removal of previous walls and elements, new stones are inserted — not only to indicate what once existed but also to reinforce the rhythm and intensify the promenade.
The kitchen floor preserves its original hexagonal tiles, bringing the apartment’s history into the present while reducing material waste. The powder room floor, on the other hand, was handcrafted using leftover stones found in the apartment, offering a solution that combines sustainability with a thoughtful use of available resources. This complex coexistence of material encounters and overlays makes the flooring the main element orchestrating the spatial flow and the key contributor to the apartment’s unique personality.

The dining room also defies the conventional. A diagonal panel disrupts the traditional layout, with the table placed perpendicular to it. A built-in bar within this carpentry expands the possibilities for use and social interaction. The colorful handles, handcrafted by an artist from northeastern Brazil, reference our native fauna and add layers of identity and authenticity.

The apartment proposes a new perspective on contemporary living — a space free from rigidity, open to change and true to the identity of its inhabitants. A breath of fresh air within the city, where architecture engages in dialogue with light, materials and the lives of those who live there.

Precise interventions reveal new rhythms and multiply possibilities for inhabitation, making everyday life lighter, more intuitive and more attuned to the present moment.