Harmonia 57 in Sao Paulo, Brazil by Triptyque

Located in a neighborhood in the west side of São Paulo, the project in Harmonia Street is where galleries and walls are mixed up, functioning as a stage for new expression forms. The alley in front of the building is an example – its graffiti present a concept of experimentation that flows out from the street into the construction

The building is like a neutral, grey base, sculpted and deformed. The aesthetic is a result of the process – the structure is rough and has a primitive elegance – a reflex of the actual concern with environmental issues and the investigation of ways of intervention.

Its volume is quite simple, but also remarkable: two grand vegetal blocks are connected by a metallic footbridge, cut by concrete and glass windows and terraces. Between the blocks a internal plaza opens like a clearing and acts like a place of encountering.

The terraces are spread in each floor, creating a visual game between volumes, lighting and transparency in the internal spaces. The frontal block is completely suspense, levitating over pilotis, while the back block is solid, complemented by a birdhouse-like volume on top of it.

Its insides are exposed in the facades while the interior spaces are well finished with clear and luminous surfaces, as if the construction was inside out. The pipelines that serve the whole building – as well as the pumps and the water treatment system – are showing in the exterior walls, embracing them like veins and arteries of a body.

Architects: Triptyque
Project Architects: Greg Bousquet, Carolina Bueno, Guillaume Sibaud e Olivier Raffaelli
Site area: 500 sqm
Constructed area: 1,060 sqm
Landscape: Peter Webb
Contractor: Bassani Arquitetos Construtores
Structure: Rika / Eng. Rioske Kanno
Photographs: Nelson Kon