Project: Petrópolis Apartment
Architects: Atelier Aberto Arquitetura
Location: Porto Alegre, Brazil
Area: 85 m2
Photo Credits: Marcelo Donadussi
Text by Atelier Aberto Arquitetura
The strength of the Petrópolis Apartment is in the naturality of materials and its efficient and functional aesthetic.
The design doesn’t take over the space. Despite the textures on the walls, there are opportunities for the clients to put their own personality into their home, by filling it with works of art, carpets, and furniture.
Reasonably fragmented, the property previously did not present much natural light. After the renovation, the kitchen, assembled with the laundry area, gained a window and today has a great connection with the living area. A fair part of the success of these interventions resides on the project’s functional partitions, with custom cabinets that separate the areas, working as multifunctional walls that can also be used as storage. For example, the gray cabinet that separates the kitchen from the laundry room, the master bedroom’s wardrobe that hides the door to the bathroom, and also, the wardrobe that extends to the living room wall assuring privacy to the intimate area. These solutions weren’t new in architecture. Since the 1950s, they’ve been used as an effective way to design small apartment interiors.
The linear cupboard that covers the entire extension of the kitchen has a niche for decorative objects, a vertical drawer for spices and a barbecue grill (only possible after the renovation), a refrigerator and a door to the laundry area. All lined up just like a wall. The kitchen isle dimensions were adjusted to work as an extension of the preexisting wooden dining table.
In the living room, real cement was applied on the elongated shelves wall. Among the loose furniture, the “Brasília armchair” and the “Tubo center table” stands out, both Schuster’s design. The long linear couch in the living room was actually, two couches. After the renovation, they were transformed into a bipartite unity.
Is visible in the kitchen crossing of materials: the basalt countertop, the cumaru wooden floor, and the brick wall that received water-repellent coating to avoid moisture and grease.
The bed was custom-designed to serve as storage, fitting chests and drawers, optimizing the space. Beside the bed, as previously said, there’s a mirrored wardrobe with a hidden door to the suite’s bathroom.
