Photographer: André Scarpa | ArchDaily

Franca Apartment / Ana Sawaia Arquitetura

Susanna Moreira — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Located in the Jardins neighborhood of São Paulo, this apartment occupies the first floor of a building designed by Sérgio Ambrogini in 1973. The current intervention builds upon a previous renovation, carried out in 2021 by Studio Lak, from which some elements were preserved.

Pavilion Tess / Estúdio Leonardo Zanatta

Susanna Moreira — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:00:00 +0000

The Tess Pavilion adopts strategies for passive thermal efficiency and structural decoupling. The flat roof is designed as an autonomous slab, dissociated from the main volumes, allowing for continuous ventilation and permanent shading. The positioning of the openings was studied to optimize solar gain in winter and mitigate direct sunlight in summer, reducing energy consumption and improving thermal comfort.

From Stone Walls to Skyscrapers: Understanding Structural Masonry

Eduardo Souza — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 04:00:00 +0000

The Monadnock Building in Chicago began construction in 1891 and is still in use today. The building features a somber facade without ornamentation and a colossal height - at the time - of 16 floors. It is considered the first skyscraper built in structural masonry, with ceramic bricks and a granite base. To support the entire load of the building, the structural walls on the ground floor are 1.8 meters thick, and at the top, 46 centimeters. One hundred and thirty years later, this construction system remains common and allows for the erection of taller buildings with much thinner walls, accomplishing even new architectural works economically and rationally. But what is structural masonry about, and how can designers use it in architectural projects? And for what kinds of buildings is this system most suitable?

Mangabas Residence / Reinach Mendonça Arquitetos Associados

Valeria Silva — Sat, 24 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +0000

Mangabas Residence is a very spacious residence that has 6 suites, a home theater, an office, a sauna, very spacious social areas with a gourmet veranda, a swimming pool, and a shelter for 4 cars. This house was designed for a family consisting of a young couple with pre-teen children with many relatives and friends to live with and enjoy the house's spaces.

Residência Braúnas / Reinach Mendonça Arquitetos Associados

Andreas Luco — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Serving as a summer house for the families of two brothers, Braunas Residence organizes an extensive program of social and private spaces on a single-floor house. Both families already used to get together often on weekends and vacations, so it was a natural decision to build the project as a coexistence space for the whole family. As for the project, that meant the only strict spaces are the couples' suites, children's bedrooms are shared between cousins and every other space is for common use.

Blue House / studio mk27

Susanna Moreira — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Casa Azul is a case study on how to build amidst lush and protected nature, without damaging it. The land is located in Serra do Guararu, a coastal region of the Atlantic Forest in the state of São Paulo, just 500 meters away from Iporanga Beach. As it is an environmental protection area, the architecture had to work within strict parameters to fully preserve the existing landscape.

Toque-Toque House / Nitsche Arquitetos

Valeria Silva — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0000

The house in Toque-Toque was designed to be a simple, flexible, and easy-to-build construction and serve as a summer residence on São Paulo’s coast. The plot is located on a steep slope covered by dense tropical forests. For this purpose, the house was placed transversely to the slope, projecting the house towards the sea, and placing it at the treetop’s height.

Castanheiras Arena in Santana de Parnaiba / Estúdio Trópico

Pilar Caballero — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:00:00 +0000

In 2018 a Master Plan has been developed by the Andrade Morettin office, aimed at guiding the Escola Castanheiras growth for the next five years and those debates gave rise to a program involving the first school enlargement stage: a multi-sport court, a refectory aimed at supplying 700 daily meals and rooms for arts, music and theater classes.

Jardim das Bandeiras House / Nitsche Arquitetos

Andreas Luco — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This project is the renovation of a 1960s ordinary house in Jardim das Bandeiras. With 460m² divided into three floors, the old house had already undergone another renovation a few years before, and the Nitsche team was the second to intervene in the property. The house is accommodated on a slope topography, and the access takes place in the middle floor. The leisure area stays at the lowest level, with a pool and garden, while the private areas are located at the top floor, with three bedrooms.

Apiacás House Renovation / entre escalas

Susanna Moreira — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 14:00:00 +0000

The house on Apiacás street is part of a group of row houses built in the 1950s. The intervention on the original construction proposes to rethink the relationship between the different areas of the house, proposing new spatialities.

Cyclopean Concrete and Its Many Diverse Uses and Applications in Architecture

Belén Maiztegui — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Historically, "cyclopean" referred to a building technique that superimposed large stone blocks together without any mortar. This allowed for a diverse array of structures across various civilizations, including defensive walls, talayots, navetas, nuraghes, temples, tombs, and forts. Nowadays, the term applies to any ancient structure consisting of large stones superimposed to form a polygonal shape.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha Passes Away at 92

Equipe ArchDaily Brasil — Sun, 23 May 2021 12:23:00 +0000

One of the biggest names in Brazilian and worldwide architecture, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, passed away at the age of 92. As his son Pedro Mendes da Rocha reported to ArchDaily, the architect was hospitalized in São Paulo due to lung cancer and passed away at dawn on Sunday, May 23, 2021.

Santa Cruz Library / Andrade Morettin Arquitetos Associados

Susanna Moreira — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 14:00:00 +0000

The contest of a new library of Colégio Santa Cruz, one of the important traditional schools of São Paulo, emerged throughout the process of campus modernization and restructuring, with the aim of free areas integration. Due to the privileged footprint, at the centre of the campus, the original project was not corresponding to the building importance, since it was not integrated with the whole environment.

Chalet L / Silvia Acar Arquitetura

Pilar Caballero — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 21:00:00 +0000

The chalet L was designed to be just a room, a transparent refuge in the forest. For creating the feeling of being surrounded by the treetops, the refuge was raised from the ground, creating a space under it, where it is possible to do outside activities. There is also space on arrival to put boots and coats. Inside, a desk, sink, and a built-in nightstand creating a small refuge. The chalet area l is 6.25 m²

Guarujá House / Nitsche Arquitetos

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 17:00:00 +0000

The house is be located in Iporanga, a condominium for beach houses on Guarujá, São Paulo’s coast city, approximately 120km east from the capital. This condo is inside a very well preserved and protected area of the original Atlantic Rainforest. To preserve the exuberance of this native forest the law permitted to occupy only 30% of the footprint of the ground plot surface. The challenge was to accommodate a large program that included five en-suite bedrooms, which demanded not less than 450m2 to be build. To achieve this, it was necessary to split the program in three levels.

House in Peruíbe / Vereda Arquitetos

Valeria Silva — Fri, 01 May 2020 16:00:00 +0000

The design for the House in Peruíbe begins with an existing house, very precarious from the point of view of its conservation. Above all, this existing house lacked the enjoyment potentialities that the site and the condition of being very close to beach offered, even though being in an urban lot and the house not being just for vacation.

House in Salto de Pirapora / Vereda Arquitetos

Andreas Luco — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 02:00:00 +0000

House in Salto de Pirapora Salto de Pirapora is a satellite city 25km from Sorocaba and the house is located on the road that connects these two cities. The 1000m2 plot has an eitght meters slope and looks out over a small ecological reserve bordering a stream.

Angatuba House / messina | rivas

Pilar Caballero — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 17:00:00 +0000

Casa Angatuba Reform is located in Pacaembu, a city-garden neighborhood in the city of São Paulo.