The apartment has a view of four postcards of Rio de Janeiro

After deciding to live together, the architect João Panaggio – from the cast of CASACOR Rio – and the hairstylist Fil Freitas immediately decided that they wanted this apartment of 210 m². The reason? The view of four postcards of the capital of Rio de Janeiro: Lagoa, Pedra da Gávea, Morro Dois Irmãos and Cristo Redentor. With the keys in hand, excitement took over the couple and what should have been a renovation without major demolitions ended up resulting in a complete reform, especially in the social area and kitchen. "The bedrooms underwent little intervention because we wanted to maintain some original characteristics of the modernist building, constructed in the 1960s, such as the peroba-do-campo wooden flooring, the wooden wardrobes with frames, and the plaster moldings," reveals Fil. Among the couple's main wishes for the project, they both wanted the apartment to have the feel of an art and design gallery to display some pieces they had already bought together and others that were on their wish list. "The project was born on-site, looking each day at what could be done," says João. "Only afterwards did we choose the furniture, considering each person's favorite pieces and which fit best in the projects and concepts," he adds. With the renovation, the walls that divided the living room into three projects were demolished to create an open and integrated space and the kitchen, which was previously isolated, was fully opened, becoming part of the new social area. Additionally, the service bathroom was transformed into a lavatory, accessible through the bedrooms' hallway. The remainder of the original layout was maintained, and the rooms were modernized with new finishes. The architect relied on neutral materials and finishes in the integrated living room plan to enhance natural light presence and the external view, framed by large windows that occupy almost the entire wall of the facade.

In the decoration, except for the modular sofa Doty (by Jader Almeida), the Paulistano armchair (by Paulo Mendes da Rocha) and the Diz armchair (by Sérgio Rodrigues), which were already part of the residents' collection, all the furniture is new. "We mixed classics of Brazilian design from the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Jangada armchair and the stool, by Jean Gillon, the Mole armchair and the Mocho bench, by Sergio Rodrigues, the Spindel flowerpot, by Willy Guhl, and the coffee table, by Joaquim Tenreiro, with creations signed by contemporary designers like Guilherme Wentz, Jacqueline Terpins, Bruno de Carvalho, Felipe Madeira, and Jader Almeida," points out the architect. The selection of artworks, curated by Lurdinha Piquet, is impressive. In the dining area, the tile painting Phanacea Fantástica, by Adriana Varejão, and the wall sculpture Entroncados III, by Ana Holck, stand out. In the living projects, the highlights are the painting from the Windows series and the wall sculpture The smallest carnival in the world, both by Raul Mourão, the bronze wall sculpture (on the support column near the window), by Artur Lescher, and the "red" photograph by Lucia Koch. "Raul Mourão insisted on visiting the apartment to oversee the positioning of his works," reveals the architect. To reinforce the atmosphere of an art gallery, the architect chose a monolithic light gray microcement floor throughout the living room, kitchen, and laundry (which are integrated projects) to highlight the dark and black wooden furniture, and utilized inverted black baseboards, exposed raw concrete beams, and white walls. To bring coziness, João designed a wall panel made of pau-ferro wood (a dark wood with well-marked grains, widely used in the modernist period) along the entire wall of the living room. "On one side, the panel mimics the two access doors to the apartment and the daily use kitchen cabinets. On the other side, it serves as a library shelf, with a stainless steel niche for a bar," he explains. "To bring visual lightness and add a touch of Rio de Janeiro to the project, we opted for white linen canvas curtains," adds Fil. In the bathrooms, the pau-ferro cabinets were combined with Travertino Navona marble, found in the floors, walls, and countertop.