Higienópolis Apartment: Open-Plan Living Framed by Urban Views Beyond
Higienópolis Apartment sits in São Paulo, Brazil, remodeled by Sandra Sayeg Arquitetura for a couple shifting into an empty-nest rhythm. The apartment becomes both an intimate home and a generous host, tying living, dining, and terrace into one continuous sequence. Social rooms open to the tree-lined neighborhood, while private rooms reorganize around daily needs and frequent guests without losing clarity.
A long terrace filters daylight across concrete and wood, drawing the eye past dining, living, and a compact home office. Doors vanish into panels and the city arrives as a constant, the rooms now reading as one measured sweep.
This apartment in São Paulo recalibrates daily life around sequence and flow. Sandra Sayeg Arquitetura reorganizes a once-partitioned plan into an open social axis that links living, dining, kitchen, and terrace for invitations both casual and formal. The throughline is clear: circulation that dissolves boundaries and multiplies ways to gather.
Open the Axis
Walls come down and a free north–south run connects the social core to the urban view. The living room, dining area, and a compact work zone align along this run, so conversation and movement stay fluid without tripping thresholds. Light tracks across the floor and up the panels. A single gesture organizes the home while keeping rooms distinct enough for rhythm changes.
Reconfigure the Core
The former four-bedroom layout shifts to three, trading redundancy for flexibility and clear paths. A master suite anchors the private wing, while two guest rooms share a bathroom and one taps a discreet door to the couple’s suite for use as an office when unoccupied. Proportions read taller with floor-to-ceiling doors and panels that stretch sightlines. The plan trims dead ends and grants each room a simple approach.
Flex Kitchen Boundaries
The kitchen toggles between connected and separate by way of doors and windows concealed within a lacquered panel. For larger dinners, it opens to the dining area and living room so cooking becomes part of the evening; for quiet mornings, it closes down to a calm nook for coffee and quick meals. A compact table handles daily use, while a long rustic Pagliotto stone counter backs a twelve-seat table for big gatherings. This calibrated toggling keeps the social rooms responsive to different tempos.
Stage Meals and Moments
Dining scales from four to twelve without clutter or scramble. A small table near a Zalszupin-designed piece sets the tone for intimate meals, then the main table extends the line for celebrations and family. Outside, an open-air table aligns with a pizza oven and beer tap so evenings carry onto the terrace. The same axis that frames the skyline also stages the meal from prep to toast.
Connect Rooms to the City
Exposed concrete, revealed after removing neoclassical trim, pairs with warm wood panels to temper acoustics and guide movement. Custom carpentry organizes daily life, from a china cabinet in the dining room to a bookshelf in the home theater that steadies the length of the wall. Lighting by Lightworks layers task and glow to underline thresholds and materials. On the terrace, vintage Spindel planters add quiet presence and keep the indoor line moving outward.
By dusk, the route from entry to terrace reads calm and direct. Rooms keep their edges yet stay in conversation with one another as the lights dial down. The plan does the talking, and the city does the rest.
Photography courtesy of Sandra Sayeg Arquitetura
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