The sea view is the center point of this apartment, located in a building by architect Gil Borsoi, an architect from Pernambuco important in disseminating modern architecture throughout the Brazilian northeast in the 70s and 80s. With a volumetry full of movement, the project’s challenge was to create comfortable high ceilings and allow for integrated social environments.
Global Design & Architecture Design Awards 2021
Second Award | Category: Interiors – Residential (Built)
Project Name: MW Apartment
Project Category: Interior Design – Residential
Studio Name: Studio Arthur Casas
Design Team: Author: Arthur Casas. Co-Author and Interior manager: Regiane Khristian. Co-Author and Decoration manager: Rafael Palombo. Decoration coordinator: Paulina Tabet. Illustration and Interior Architect: Amanda Tamburus. Collaborators: Luisa Mader, Fernanda Costa, Leonardo Navarro and Susanna Brolhani.
Area: 420 sqm
Year: 2021
Location: Recife – Pernambuco, Brazil
Consultants: Renata Tilli (landscape design); Maneco Quinderé (lighting).
Photography Credits: Fran Parente
Text Credits: Studio Arthur Casas
Other Credits: Contractor: Solo Engenharia. Suppliers: Marvelar (woodwork); Protecnica (painting); A&V (automation and security); Florence (kitchen and closets); Nani Chinelatto (curtains); Imperial (countertops); Donata (flooring).
The solution was to embrace the apparent beams, exposing the materiality of the cement and, from the location of the pillars, enfold them with woodwork and distribute the social areas in a broad and continuous way, parting it from the private and service areas. The intimate area holds two suites and the master suite, with two closets and interconnected bathrooms. The office was thought especially to accommodate an extensive photography collection. The service area offers a kitchen and a dedicated space for breakfast. In the social area, the living rooms, dining room and the terrace are integrated and count on a continuous lateral landscape design to ensure privacy.
Only one of the four façades of the unit has a view of the sea, therefore, to bring to that façade the most intense usage of the residents, all the common living spaces are located there. In this project, a key aspect in Arthur Casas’ work is evident: the preoccupation in creating interiors that will impact sensitively and emotionally the users through textures and materials – concepts the architect applies from his studies on neuroarchitecture and cognitive architecture. The transparent glass brings the blue from the sky and sea into the interior. The white terrazza flooring reflects the exterior blue and potentializes the landscape throughout most environments of the apartment, contrasting with the Canela wood panel, which extends from the entrance to the gourmet area with a long bench. In the living room, the furniture is loose, creating numerous possibilities of grouping. The use of spinning elements, such as the Fasanello armchair and Sergio Rodrigues’ armchair with wheels contribute to this concept. Casas considers it extremely important to draw all scales of a project, from the architecture to the furnishing and finishing, for he believes that, this way, he can make the client’s experience in the space much more rich and impactful – in this project, he even drew the main entrance’s door handle.
The apartment’s furniture has pieces signed by Arthur Casas – such as the Breaco lamp, the Ela and Fusca sofas and the Max chair – and designers such as Claudia Moreira Salles, Jorge Zalszupin, Sergio Rodrigues, Ricardo Fasanello. According to Arthur, the furniture that best dialogues with popular art is the brazilian one. Therefore, this is a home where popular art has its space and craftwork is valued: there is an outstanding local popular art collection by Nicola, Jean, Veríssimo, Dona Irineia, among others – Arthur Casas seeks to diffuse brazilian popular art to the maximum, including in his projects in Brazil and in the exterior many pieces produced by craftsman he has discovered throughout the country.
