Apartment meets art house

Interior design by Pascali Semerdjian Arquitetos

From the interior designer:

The apartment is a 376m² single floor located in São Paulo. 

In the social area, the dining room is integrated to the living room, surrounded by large, landscaped balconies, the custom wine cellar, kitchen with lunch room, and the tv room  – a wall separates the social area from the entry hall and the apartment's private/intimate spaces. 

Besides the guest suite, isolated from the intimate area by a door, the project includes the couple's suite, with closet and bathroom, and the daughters' bedrooms with a toy room, closet, and common bathroom.

The social areas and guest suite occupy half of the apartment, while sliding doors allow private circulation between the three family bedrooms and the kitchen – an intimate sanctum within the larger context. 

The owners worked with the architects to develop social zones that are both deeply Brazilian and vividly cosmopolitan. 

In the entry hall, a hemicycle of light blazes through a panel of jade-coloured Pakistani onyx – 'like a sunset at the end of the corridor'.

The project is harmonious in terms of materiality – balanced and sombre. 

Removing the worn plaster ceiling revealed the elegant original concrete ceiling of the building, which was left exposed in some rooms. 

The owners wanted wall space for a growing art collection; social areas that were generous but not palatial; an avoidance of leather or synthetic fabrics; and sustainability certificates for every piece of wood used in the renovation. 

The goal: A house proud of its city – São Paulo.

The couple loves object design, just like us, so we took a lot of care and made some special designs for them, so the apartment would be unique and a different experience – for example, the sink in the couple's bathroom, or the niche and closet at the entrance with its almost religious design, marking the entrance of a familiar sacred space. 

Other special elements are the onyx panel in the living room with a built-in light fixture and the special design of the kitchen cabinet.

The interior design also stands out for a unique and special curation of iconic and experimental design pieces from Brazilian and international designers. 

Some of the pieces used are a customised cocktail table that joins an OscarNiemeyer chaise longue, a double-sided Siri stool by Claudia Moreira Salles, and a pair of vintage Svante Skogh armchairs and a vintage Kurt Østervig lounge chair in the living room.

In the dining room we used vintage Erik Buch chairs, Bertjan Pot's Propant pendants hanging from the original exposed ceiling, and a wall sculpture by the Brazilian-Polish artist Franz Krajcberg. 

The stools are by Alvar Aalto. 

Works by Brazilian artists – Ana María Tavares, Gabriela Costa, and Matias Mesquita – line the entry hall.

In the couple’s suite an artwork by Katrin Korfmann joins a Zanine Caldas armchair and a rare vintage floor lamp attributed to Hans Bergström, as well as a photograph by Luiza Ladeira Lavorato.

Designed by: Pascali Semerdjian Arquitetos

Story by: Trendsideas