Isay Weinfeld

360° Building is located in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, where currently over 10 million people live spread over 1,525 km². In this setting, unfortunately the “norm” is to live not at one’s best, but crammed and confined, and to commute long distances everyday between home, work and other commitments, by car, bus, or subway. The time left for leisure is scarce, and few are the options to enjoy activities in the open air.

Mindful of the urban reality in São Paulo, of the market and of the client brief, we have strived to introduce 360º Building as an alternative to the vertical multi-family housing “model”, which, in its commonest form, merely stacks up apartment units – ordinary, compact and closed onto themselves.

360º Building, rising on top of the ridge separating the districts of Alto de Pinheiros and Alto da Lapa – a geographic location that offers privileged sights of the surrounding area and the city -, features 62 elevated homes with yards: real yards, not balconies, designed as genuine living spaces, wide, airy and bright. It will present 7 types of apartments – either 130, 170, 250 or 415 m² – combined in sets of 2, 3 or 4 units per floor, in 6 different arrangements.

Leaving the street and past the reception, a suspended walkway leads to the building’s lobby, surrounded on all sides by a reflective pool. Down one floor, on the ground level, entertaining areas and other facilities – gym, lounge, party room and laundry – will be located, as also the janitor’s living quarters. Further down, are 3 parking levels, and, on the lowermost level, employees quarters, storage and engine rooms, in addition to a sauna and an outdoor swimming pool. The land, a steep downwards slope, allows the lower levels to be semi-subterranean, always keeping 2 sides open to the light and to ventilation.

The building projects to all sides showing no distinction between main and secondary façades.