Fidalga 800 Building / Reinach Mendonça Arquitetos Associados

Architects: Reinach Mendonça Arquitetos Associados
Location: São Paulo, Brasil
Coordinator: Frederico Zara
Project Team: Luciana Maki, Marcelo Zahr, Denise Hino, Rodrigo Nogueira, Fernando Sunao, Humberto Buso, Tony Chen, Flora Fuji, Lucas Padovani, Rafael Costa, Caterina Chippari, Camila Benegas, Luciana Morais, Fernanda Jozsef, Maurício Metello, Maíra Cordeiro, Flávia Henriques, Natália Campos, Ana Júlia Sprovieri, Natasha Vilaça, Fernanda Duarte e João Faim
Project Area: 4,700 sqm
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Nelson Kon

Landscape: Maria Helena Cruz
Lightning: Lumini
Structure: Esteng
Contractor: CPD

In a land lot located in an dead-end street, in the district of Vila Madalena, São Paulo, the project for this residential building followed a very clear and specific architectural concept: the two typical floor units should receive the same insolation conditions and the same view of the beautiful landscape of the west zone of the city of São Paulo.

With a frontage to the street measuring 20 meters only, matching the most important view, the plan arrangement of the typical floor plan required several hours of drawings and cleverness by the design.

Two metallic grilles have been designed as a second skin, which cover the entire building at 40 cm from the sashes, playing the major role of controlling the insolation without losing luminosity. The grilles comprise a surface that provides unity and verticality to the building.

Made of thin galvanized steel sheets, forming a checkered pattern of 5 x 5 x 5 cm, these grilles were also conceived to provide privacy to the social spaces of both buildings. Another important proposal of the project is the idea of one “house” type unit at the ground floor level.