2022
MCHAP
Edifício Bandeira
Una arquitetos
São Paulo, SP, Brazil
July 2021
AUTOR PRINCIPAL
Fernanda Barbara (Architect in charge), Fabio Rago Valentim (Architect in charge)
AUTOR CONTRIBUYENTE
SOMA arquitetos (Landscape Design), Avila Engenharia de Estruturas (Concrete Structure), Bijari Estúdio (Visual Identity), Elisa Bracher (Artist / Sculpture), Sudio Ix (Lighting Design
CLIENTE
Nortis Incorporadora
FOTÓGRAFO
Leonardo Finotti
OBJETIVO
The real estate market builds most of the formal city, and follows rules defined by urban legislation. Nothing is missing and nothing is left over in this type of project, where the focus is always on building as much as possible.
The Bandeira Building is made up of two volumes, with an angle of inflection between them, converging on a circulation tower. This inflection allows the living room and bedrooms to be oriented towards the best views, avoiding the neighboring buildings that pose visual obstacles. It is also from this same inflection between the volumes that the first floor is able to offer part of the land area to the public promenade, merging a landscaped square with the street itself. The building is accessed through this small square, with a door protected by a small marquee. The low height of the walls means that the tops of the trees outside and inside the building add up to a continuous green canopy.
The housing units range from 50 to 200m2, and all have a continuous balcony in front of the rooms where the most people live (living room and bedrooms), allowing these rooms to always have floor-to-ceiling frames, which means that there are excellent results in terms of wider views, natural ventilation, protection from excess sun and rain, as well as better integration of the balconies with the internal environments.
CONTEXTO
The São Paulo Metropolitan Region is extensively occupied, approximately 80 km by 50 km, and is home to 20 million people. One of the main features of this landscape is the housing towers that are set against a backdrop of hills and springs. A new Zoning put in place in 2012 organized and guided densification along transport infrastructure corridors - metro and bus corridors. Vila Madalena, the neighborhood where the Bandeira building is located, has since undergone enormous densification. With the new urban standards, sidewalks have been widened and tree-lined, the number of apartments has increased and, in general, there has been an increase in housing density. The new urban model tries to correct the occupation that had been characterizing the city's expanding areas, where fenced mono-functional buildings predominate, ostentatiously fortified, opaque to the street, and without any relation to the qualification of public spaces, with the false premise of offering greater security.
In this context, the Bandeira building breaks with these premises and offers permeable cobogós facades, gardens, benches and trees for enjoyment next to the public space, merging with it.
ACTUACIÓN
The Bandeira Building's construction system is made of exposed reinforced concrete, which means that the structure, finish, volume and expression are the result of the technical quality and rationality of the construction system.
The internal structure of the apartments eliminates the need for beams, resulting in a thick, smooth slab in the internal areas. The drywall walls can be easily remodeled or removed, and the exposed concrete ceiling is continuous, eliminating the need for ceilings that would reduce the internal height of the units.
All the units have a continuous balcony that expands the internal spaces by allowing floor-to-ceiling and, at the same time, protect them from excessive sun and tropical rains.
The ground floor and the mezzanine level accommodate the areas used for collective activities. The swimming pools (one for adults and one for children) merge into a large triangular-shaped pool that crosses the building's elevated volume, creating an unusual space with shaded areas also above the water, an interesting condition especially for young children who spend long hours playing in the water. The building's entrance is marked by a horizontal window almost at water level, enhancing the boundary between the water and the interior spaces.
To enhance the open spaces, to integrate them with the street and with each other on different levels, the landscaping project was fundamental to achieving the highest quality for the development.
