White walls, wooden floors and green cabinets mark the 280 m² apartment

A couple with an adult son bought this 280 m² linear penthouse in poor condition in Jardim Oceânico (RJ) and immediately commissioned a general renovation project from architects Bernardo Gaudie-Ley and Tânia Braida, from Beta Arquitetura , an office in the CASACOR Rio de Janeiro team. In addition to resizing the spaces, the duo decorated all the rooms, renovated the external facades and installed a solar energy system. The entire new flooring in the apartment is the same as the existing flooring – natural ipe planks – which required restoration, in addition to replacing the same material in the expanded and altered areas. Another request from the client was to enlarge the living room , remove the old, large round pool (to create a wet deck with a hot tub/spa in its place), integrate the kitchen and, finally, leave the walls white to highlight the art collection. With the renovation, the living room incorporated 40 m² of the old balcony, leaving space to create an entrance hall, now delimited by a hollow carpentry bookcase. Previously isolated, the kitchen was expanded (towards the old maid's room and service area, which were huge) and integrated into the social area. In the private wing, two bedrooms were transformed into suites (the son's bedroom has a walk-in closet and the guest bedroom has just a bathroom) and the existing suite was remodeled to add a walk-in closet, thus becoming a complete master suite for the couple. In the outdoor area, the existing sauna was removed and part of the giant bathroom that served the old pool was transformed into a toilet, which did not exist in the original plan.

In the decor, with a contemporary style and modernist touches, several design pieces that were already part of the clients' collection were kept at the new address, such as the Pantosh armchairs (by Lattoog Design ), the Taccia table lamp (designed by Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos), the Jabuti coffee table, the Slick armchair (by Sergio Fahrer ), the Luisa chair (in rosewood, by Franco Albini ) and the Tulipa floor lamp (by Eero Saarinen , which came from the old Hotel Nacional, designed by Oscar Niemeyer). Among the new pieces, the architects highlight the island sofa with seats facing the TV room and the living room (by Lider Interiores ), the Kilin armchair (by Sergio Rodrigues ), the Oblonga dining table and the Prima chairs (by Estudiobola ), the trio of Trento, Verona and Rimini pendant lamps (by Maurício Davila ), the Kita stools (by Desmobilia ), the Loop concrete armchairs and the Spindel flowerpot on the balcony (by Willy Guhl , original from the 1950s, bought at auction by the clients) and all the rugs. Among the works of art, it is worth highlighting the paintings by artists Eduardo Sued, José Paulo Moreira da Fonseca, Alfredo Volpi and Ulisses S. In the color palette , since the kitchen was integrated into the social area and received cabinets with an olive green finish and the apartment's floor was already made of natural ipe (in a slightly dark tone), the architects opted for white walls to add visual lightness to the set and highlight not only the couple's works of art but also the designer furniture. Facing the dining room, the kitchen's high peninsula-style countertop was made of light natural stone (Matarazzo quartzite) and, for the same reason, all the carpentry designed by the office has a finish in also light natural oak, including the apartment's entrance door. In the outdoor area, the niche where the new gourmet area was built was covered with blue and white geometric patterned tiles and took on the appearance of a portico. Due to the sunlight, the countertops are made of black São Gabriel granite, with a brushed finish.