For Brazilian architect Ana Sawaia, the work of modernist architect João Batista Vilanova Artigas needs no introduction. Artigas was a founding figure of the São Paulo–based Paulista School, active from the 1950s to the 1970s, which favored using raw, exposed concrete to construct massive forms. The school’s work has been referred to as brutalist (although Artigas never liked the label)—and it contrasts with the smooth, curving style of the Carioca School in Rio de Janeiro. (For the latter, think Oscar Niemeyer.)

Artigas also cofounded the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo, where he was a professor. One of his well-known works is the department’s building on the main campus, designed with Carlos Cascaldi‏‎ and finished in 1968.

Years later, Sawaia encountered Artigas’s work through her own architecture studies, and she’s currently on the board of the Instituto Virgínia e Vilanova Artigas, a professional organization dedicated to his work. In 2020, she remodeled an apartment in the 1946 Louveira Complex, designed by Artigas and Cascaldi. When she was tapped to remodel a second Artigas home, which she calls Casa Muxarabi, in São Paulo, she was thrilled. “I love his work,” says Sawaia. “I felt very lucky to do this project.”

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

This house was built in 1956, and it’s part of Artigas’s second phase of residential work, says Sawaia. His first phase was more eclectic, with organic touches influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. The next phase, which referenced Le Corbusier, was “characterized by a clear articulation between structure and spatial organization,” says Sawaia. In Artigas’s third phase, which lasted from 1956 to the end of his career in the 1980s, the architect honed ideas that would later become the hallmarks of the Paulista School.

The current owners, a couple who work in the arts, purchased the home in late 2021 after a yearlong search. “They visited several notable houses, but this one immediately stood out,” says Sawaia. They liked many of the existing features, like the original exterior tiles and the muxarabi screens, which were once made of white-painted wood, but had since been replaced with black aluminum versions.

They didn’t like the original floor plan, which felt too compartmentalized for the couple and their two daughters, two dogs, and two cats. “They were looking for a more open and connected space for everyday life, and also for receiving friends,” says Sawaia. “The challenge was how to adapt the house to contemporary living without losing its special character.”

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Sawaia started by removing internal walls to open up the ground level. “The house is very clear and rational, with columns placed at regular intervals to form a structural grid,” says Sawaia. “This made it possible to keep the columns, expose them, and integrate them into the design.” The architect also removed the hall next to the existing staircase, which enabled her to expand the size of the kitchen.

Before: Living Room Fireplace

After: Living Room Fireplace

Before: Main Floor

After: Main Floor

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Sawaia added a linear skylight above the stairs to bring more light to the center of the plan. The muxarabi screens were returned to their original white, while the wooden doors and window frames adjacent to the bedroom balconies were stripped of “many layers of paint,” says Sawaia, to show their natural color.

Before: Staircase

After: Staircase

Custom shelving, made of very thin, folded metal sheets, lines the main-floor walls and is deftly suspended between two columns to screen the entry. Stacking glass doors allow the entire length of the living room to be opened to the garden, which was designed by Luciano Fiaschi and Tomás Rebolo. Thanks to the city’s mild climate, the doors remain open much of the year, so birdsong and the humid air redolent with the scent of plants can filter through the house.

Sawaia’s wide-ranging knowledge of Artigas can be found in the playful references sprinkled throughout the home, like the floor tile on the ground level, which recalls the tile the architect designed for the Jaú Bus Station in São Paulo. The color scheme—from the bright-blue swirls of the living room rug, to the yellow kitchen cabinets—is plucked from Artigas’s oft-used primary hues.

Before: Balcony

After: Balcony

Before: Bedroom

After: Bedroom

“The idea was to allow the house to evolve, to create a link to his world beyond the house itself,” says Sawaia, who despite her extensive knowledge of the modernist architect, still learns something new when she works on projects like this. “I am always learning with Artigas,” she says.

Before: Bathroom

After: Bathroom

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Project Credits:

Architect: Ana Luiza Almeida Prado Sawaia / @anasawaia

Builder: JR Reformas

Structural Engineer: Eng. Paulo Camerini

Landscape Design: Luciano Fiaschi Paisagismo

Lighting Design: Reka

Interior Design: Ana Sawaia

Cabinetry Design: Securit

Styling: Zizi Carderari, Estudio Avelos