This 65sqm apartment, two bedrooms, located in Porto Alegre/RS, in Brazil, was designed for a young couple and their two cats. He is a medical student and she is an architect. The black and white cats are athletes by nature and adept at high jump practice.
Project Name: Santana Apartment
Studio Name: Atelier Aberto Arquitetura
Team: Renata Beck, Paula Motta
Academic Collaborators: Shani Stein
Project size: 65 m2
Site size: 65 m2
Completion date: 2017
Location: Porto Alegre, Brazil
Photography: Marcelo Donadussi
The architect, who dresses only in black, white and gray, would not want anything different for her new home. Besides minimalism as a premise, there was also the desire to have an apartment adapted to the felines. No major modifications were made to the plan, only the removal of two walls – one which partially hid the kitchen and another between the suite and bathroom, which allowed light to enter the room.
The original configuration of the apartment was quite clear: a long wall separating the room section from the kitchen and the social area. The proposal for renovation was based on a basic premise: to explore the longitudinal axis of the apartment, creating a sequence of environments that would allow optimizing spaces.
Receiving friends was one of the couple’s favorite social activities. Another feature employed in the enlargement of the living room was the single floor in tauari wooden tacos with paginated fishbone, which extends to the kitchen and laundry area.
The program called for a more private intimate area, with the couple’s suite and an office. The intimate area consists of two bathrooms, an office that can serve as a guest bedroom, and a suite. The latter was reserved special attention: this dormitory was designed as a gray box isolated from its exterior. The carpeted floor and the velvet curtain, which replaces the cabinet doors, give acoustic insulation to this piece – everything in gray, including the ceiling.