{"id":198484,"date":"2022-07-06T10:16:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T14:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_project&p=198484"},"modified":"2022-10-25T15:13:38","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T19:13:38","slug":"this-sustainable-home-by-pascali-semerdjian-architects-reflects-sao-paulos-style","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/this-sustainable-home-by-pascali-semerdjian-architects-reflects-sao-paulos-style\/","title":{"rendered":"This Sustainable Home by Pascali Semerdjian Architects Reflects S\u00e3o Paulo’s Style"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Works
Works by Brazilian artists\u2014Ana Mar\u00eda Tavares (left), Gabriela Costa (right), and Matias Mesquita (background)\u2014line the entry hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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July 6, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Michael Snyder<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Fran Parente<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This Sustainable Home by Pascali Semerdjian Architects Reflects S\u00e3o Paulo’s Style<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The first time Brazilian architect Sarkis Semerdjian met clients Renato Lulia Jacob and Emily Perry, the chemistry between them was obvious. Semerdjian, who is coprincipal with Domingos Pascali of the S\u00e3o Paulo-based firm Pascali Semerdjian Architects<\/a>, had gone to London in late 2019 to visit friends. Jacob and Perry, originally from Brazil and the U.S., respectively, had lived in England for a decade. When the couple learned of Semerdjian\u2019s visit, they invited him for a meal at their Edwardian townhouse in North London. \u201cBeing there with them was like sitting at a bar with old friends,\u201d Semerdjian recalls. From then on\u2014despite the challenges of the project they were about to embark on\u2014the relationship \u201cjust flowed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long before that dinner, around the time Perry became pregnant with her and Jacob\u2019s second daughter, the couple had decided to move to S\u00e3o Paulo, where Jacob had grown up. \u201cThere was a kind of gravity pulling us back,\u201d he says. They wanted their daughters to grow up speaking Portuguese and have more time with their Brazilian grandparents. \u201cThe window for both,\u201d Perry adds, \u201cwas getting smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They hired Pascali Semerdjian, which had worked with several of Jacob\u2019s friends, and began looking for a suitable apartment in Vila Nova Conceicao, a leafy neighborhood adjacent to S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Ibarapuera Park, one of relatively few green spaces in a city famously choked in concrete and asphalt. They were looking for a place they \u201cwouldn\u2019t feel guilty over destroying and rebuilding,\u201d as Jacob puts it, eventually settling on a spacious flat in a nondescript 1990\u2019s building, previously owned by an elderly couple who had moved out five years earlier. Jacob and Perry returned to London, intending to visit S\u00e3o Paulo frequently during the gut renovation of the apartment\u2014a plan the pandemic quickly nixed. \u201cAll our process was via Zoom,\u201d Pascali reports, noting that the couple was only able to return to the city shortly before the project\u2019s completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
In the dining room of a S\u00e3o Paulo apartment renovated by Pascali Semerdjian Architects, Bertjan Pot\u2019s Prop pendant fixtures hang from the exposed original ceiling, which is complemented by walls paneled in board-formed concrete.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having spent practically their entire adult lives as renters\u2014in Buenos Aires, Lisbon, and London, where they\u2019d moved three times in 10 years\u2014the new homeowners \u201chad a checklist of mistakes we wouldn\u2019t make and things we liked,\u201d Perry says. This included wall space for a growing art collection; public areas that were generous but not palatial; avoidance of leather or synthetic fabrics; and certificates of sustainability for every piece of wood used in the renovation. The goal: \u201cA home that was proud of S\u00e3o Paulo,\u201d a city, she adds ruefully, \u201cthat people love to hate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gutting the 4,000-square-foot apartment was relatively easy. Removing the worn-out gypsum ceiling revealed the building\u2019s elegant concrete formwork, which is left exposed in some rooms. Save for an unmovable plumbing pipe\u2014wrapped in rope, it\u2019s now part of the daughters\u2019 playroom\u2014there were few structural constraints, allowing the couple to organize the layout as they saw fit: The public areas and guest suite occupy the southern 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A custom cocktail table joins an Oscar Niemeyer chaise longue, a two-sided Siri bench by Claudia Moreira Salles, and a pair of vintage Svante Skogh armchairs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In particular, the clients 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-color Pakistani onyx, \u201clike a sunset at the end of the corridor,\u201d Semerdjian suggests. Board-formed concrete panels line the walls, from which a small, brass key bowl projects like a font of holy water: a secular blessing for the domestic space. The panels continue throughout the public areas, curving around the building\u2019s idiosyncratic chamfered corners to create what Pascali describes as \u201ca kind of tunnel\u201d connecting the entry to the dining and living rooms. In the latter, the panels frame a pair of built-in sofas sitting in a large niche that formerly accommodated a fireplace\u2014the type of fanciful gesture toward old-world glamour that Jacob and Perry were looking to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The residence comes to life in the refinement of its details, a punctilious approach to junctures and joints, to the points where materials meet. In one corner of the kitchen, shelves in washed freijo wood and pale gray quartz meet in a complex concatenation of boxes and panels, as precise as frames crafted for museums. Nearby, a 9-foot-long table, also fashioned from freijo, cantilevers weightlessly from the side of a monolithic concrete island\u2014a cool, calm defiance of physics that recalls S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s most iconic buildings, which take heavy concrete masses and levitate them above the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect of the sprawling inland metropolis\u2014its constantly evolving relationship with a tropical environment that it has never fully suppressed\u2014is reenacted on the apartment\u2019s many planted terraces, which encircle it with an exuberant jungle worthy of neighboring Ibarapuera Park. \u201cThe garden is chaotic, like a forest,\u201d Semerdjian acknowledges. \u201cOur goal was to really surround the space. The foliage, the concrete\u2014there\u2019s a lot of identity in those elements.\u201d The residence\u2019s tranquility does not so much erase the stimulating excess of the urban environment outside as highlight its intoxicating beauty, the irresistible pull that brought Jacob and Perry and their young daughters here in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vintage
Vintage Erik Buch chairs surround Pascali Semerdjian\u2019s Monica table in the dining room; flooring here and throughout much of the four-bedroom apartment is European oak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"In
In the dining room, a wall sculpture by Brazilian-Polish artist Franz Krajcberg hangs near the entrance to the kitchen. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Served
Served by Alvar Aalto stools, a freijo table cantilevers from the kitchen\u2019s solid concrete island, which was hoisted in through a window.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"A
A built-in brass key bowl protrudes from a niche in the entry hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Works
Works by Brazilian artists\u2014Ana Mar\u00eda Tavares (left), Gabriela Costa (right), and Matias Mesquita (background)\u2014line the entry hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"A
A vintage Kurt \u00d8stervig lounge chair upholstered in sheepskin sits next to a custom sofa in the living room, where flooring is basalt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"At
At the other end of the living-room sofa, backlighting turns a panel of Pakistani onyx into a glowing artwork.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"An
An artwork by Katrin Korfmann joins a Zanine Caldas armchair and a rare vintage floor lamp attributed to Hans Bergstr\u00f6m in the main bedroom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Pascali
Pascali Semerdjian\u2019s Duna sconce, which contains sand and can be rotated like an hourglass, lights a niche in a child\u2019s bedroom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Its
Its closet incorporates custom acrylic storage lit by LEDs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Millwork
Millwork in the playroom is freijo, an abundant South American timber. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"A
A Luiza Ladeira Lavorato photograph hangs above the main bedroom\u2019s brass table lamp and custom desk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Its
Its bathroom niche and sink are custom made of copper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Custom
Custom fittings enliven the main bathroom, clad entirely in Branca Paran\u00e1 marble.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
PROJECT TEAM<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
pascali semerdjian architects<\/span><\/a>: ana luisa cunha<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
rodrigo oliveira paisagismo<\/span><\/a>: landscape consultant<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
companhia de ilumina\u00e7\u00e3o; dimlux<\/span><\/a>: lighting consultants<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
avelart m\u00f3veis<\/span><\/a>: woodwork<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
dix arte metal<\/span><\/a>: metalwork<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
tresuno<\/span><\/a>: concrete work<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
steel engenharia e constru\u00e7\u00f5es<\/span><\/a>: general contractor<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
PRODUCT SOURCES<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
FROM FRONT<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Moooi<\/span><\/a>: pendant fixtures (dining room)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
etel<\/span><\/a>: table (dining room), chaise longue (living room), desk chair (main bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
through studio schalling<\/span><\/a>: chairs (dining room, living room), floor lamp (main bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
villa remate<\/span><\/a>: custom sofas (living room)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
marset<\/span><\/a>: sconce (entry)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
pedras bellas artes<\/span><\/a>: custom cocktail table, basalt flooring (living room)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
espasso<\/span><\/a>: bench<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
S\u00e9<\/span><\/a>: black side tables<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
vitra<\/span><\/a>: lamp<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
phenicia concept<\/span><\/a>: rug<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
lumini<\/span><\/a>: sconces (playroom, child bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
deca<\/span><\/a>: fittings (main bathroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
artek<\/span><\/a>: stools (kitchen)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Nuura<\/span><\/a>: pendant fixtures<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
docol<\/span><\/a>: sink fittings<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
savoir beds<\/span><\/a>: bed (main bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Bert Frank<\/span><\/a>: table lamp<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
arte final placas<\/span><\/a>: custom storage (child bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
THROUGHOUT<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
arteal artefatos de alum\u00ednio<\/span><\/a>: windows<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
oscar ono<\/span><\/a>: wood flooring<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
suvinil<\/span><\/a>: paint<\/span><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n