Projects / Interior Design / CS Apartment

The renovation project for the CS apartment allowed us to pursue two approaches, stemming from what we consider essential to our professional practice.

First, to intervene in an apartment building located in downtown Ribeirão Preto, near Luís Camões Square, where important projects from the city’s modernist legacy can be seen from the windows (the Sociedade Recreativa headquarters, the Itália Barillari Building, etc.). In other words, an opportunity to dialogue with the past and the talented work of great professionals.

Second, to intervene in an apartment by concentrating uses and integrating spaces through the design of a single feature capable of articulating the entire leisure, living, and dining area into a functional unit.

The result was a project that aimed for minimal demolition but used these actions for assertive objectives: closing off the existing circulation between the office and laundry area, thereby creating both a wardrobe facing the laundry and a study/work counter for the home office; and opening up the kitchen to the dining room, both by demolishing one corner of the masonry and through the visual construction of a large continuous counter that accommodates all laundry and kitchen functions.

Beyond the renovation, the interior design sought lightness and comfort through a Scandinavian-inspired chromatic atmosphere: the same gray-toned flooring throughout the entire home, light-toned cabinetry, masonry covered with white tiles, black granite countertops, and lighting combining track, pendant, and recessed fixtures. The remaining masonry section between the kitchen and dining room served to concentrate all electrical demands, as well as to support a coffee niche, refrigerator, and oven tower in the kitchen, and a display cabinet designed to also function as a buffet in the dining room.

Several other strategies were adopted in the project: replacing finishes, fixtures, and sanitary ware in wet areas; designing niches to conceal air conditioning units on the balcony; creating a mirrored shoe storage area in the master suite; along with designing all apartment cabinetry, including furniture such as bedside tables and a TV stand for the living room; and specifying comfortable furnishings to suit the clients’ lifestyle.

Upon entering the apartment, the sensation is one of inhabiting a cozy and minimalist space. Minimal not due to a lack of elements, but through the modest posture that builds meaning within the proposal. Less is more.