An Architect Reframes the Narrative of a 1940s Apartment for a Writer Couple in São Paulo

On a tree-lined block in São Paulo’s Praça Vilaboim quadrant is the Louveira Complex, a pair of Brutalist concrete apartment buildings that stand as living monuments to Brazilian modernism. With facades in distinctive yellow and red, the 1946 structures exemplify designer João Batista Vilanova Artigas’s rational yet artistic sensibility. When Brazilian architect Ana Sawaia was approached to renovate an apartment in one of the buildings, she was apprehensive. "It was a huge responsibility to interfere within Artigas’s architecture," says Sawaia.

Sawaia found encouragement from her clients, who also shared a deep appreciation for Artigas and his Louveira collaborator, Carlos Cascaldi. "The clients are a couple of writers, one of whom is also a musician," shares Sawaia. "Like me, they are great admirers of Artigas, and we elaborated many details of the project together."