Balaio Arquitetura Strips a Rented Copan Apartment Back to Niemeyer's Concrete and Moves In Themselves

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This article covers topics related to Housing, Architecture, Modern Architecture, Contemporary Architecture, Interior Architecture, Brazilian Architecture, Latin American Houses. In São Paulo's Copan, two architects renovate their own 85 m² apartment, leaving board-marked concrete raw beside walnut joinery and resin floors.

In São Paulo's Copan, two architects renovate their own 85 m² apartment, leaving board-marked concrete raw beside walnut joinery and resin floors.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Housing, Architecture on Oct 10, 2026

Few residential buildings carry as much weight in Brazilian architecture as the Copan, Oscar Niemeyer's serpentine slab in central São Paulo, completed in 1966. Thousands of people live behind its brise-soleil, and for a generation of local designers, getting to work on one of its units is close to a rite of passage. Balaio Arquitetura got that chance with an unusual brief: the client was the studio itself. Lead architects Gabriel Luqui and Gabriela Russo renovated this 85 m² apartment, previously a rental, as their own home.

What makes Copan Apartment A worth your attention is restraint, which is harder than it sounds when the architects are also the residents. The renovation starts from a close reading of the existing flat. It exposes the original concrete, keeps the window walls and the building's character intact, and adds a layer of custom furniture and practical finishes shaped around the couple's daily routine. The result has no showpiece move. Instead it settles into the building and organizes everyday life around light and a few well-placed pieces of joinery.

A Living Room That Lets the Concrete Talk Back

Living room with a rust velvet sofa, mustard armchair and walnut shelving unit, with a dog seated on the sofa in daylight

Living area with a rust velvet sofa, plywood lounge chairs and a wall-mounted television, lit by a tall window

Rust velvet sofa beside a floor lamp and potted monstera against board-marked concrete, with daylight from a tall window

Two plywood lounge chairs face a gridded window wall, with a rust sofa and monstera plant beside exposed concrete beams

Tan dog resting on a rust sofa against a board-marked concrete wall, next to a two-tier side table with a red flower

The living room sets the palette for the whole apartment: a rust velvet sofa, a mustard armchair, walnut shelving and a pair of plywood lounge chairs, all set against board-marked concrete and the Copan's gridded glazing. On paper that is a lot of warm color. In the room it works because the concrete wall behind the sofa absorbs it. The rough grain of the formwork gives the upholstery something to push against.

Look at how the furniture faces the window wall rather than the television. The plywood chairs are angled toward the city and the daylight, which is the clearest sign of the brief's priority. In an apartment where the facade does most of the environmental work, orienting the seating toward it is a quiet, correct decision.

Reading the Bones Before Adding Anything

Board-marked concrete wall beside a walnut dining table and leather-seated chairs, with potted rubber plants against a large gridded window in daylight

Close-up of the rough board-marked concrete column base meeting the cream resin floor, with a small hole and rust stain

Entry wall with a wooden bench, electrical panel and exposed concrete column, a tan dog lying on the pale floor with a blue ball

Entry hall with a wall-mounted timber shelf column, a rough wooden bench and exposed painted concrete beams in soft daylight

Glass-fronted wooden display cabinet beside a concrete column, with a corridor leading to a perforated door in soft daylight

The most confident decision here is what the architects left alone. Columns and walls show their board marks, and in one close-up a column base meets the new cream resin floor with a small hole and a rust stain still visible. Many renovations would patch that over. Balaio lets it stay, and the apartment reads as a chapter in a sixty-year-old building rather than a fresh insert.

The beams overhead are painted white instead of left raw, which is a sensible split. Raw concrete at eye level gives you texture and history, while the painted ceiling bounces daylight deeper into the plan. The entry handles this balance well: a rough timber bench, a wall-mounted shelf column and an exposed electrical panel sit together without anyone pretending the services aren't there.

Dining Under the Beams

Oval walnut dining table with green upholstered chairs and a conical pendant lamp beside a tall potted plant in soft daylight

Dining area with an oval walnut table, round-backed chair and pendant lamp beneath white-painted concrete beams, a dried stem at frame edge

View past a concrete wall into the dining area, with an oval wooden table under a hanging planter and white beams

Round wooden dining table with yellow ceramic bowls and wine glasses beside a dried-stem vase on a teak sideboard, soft daylight

Glass-fronted timber display cabinet holding glassware and plates, topped with a trailing pothos plant beside a doorway to the kitchen

The dining area centers on an oval walnut table with green upholstered and round-backed chairs, lit by a conical pendant and a hanging planter. The curved table is a smart choice in a unit organized by the Copan's rigid structural grid. It softens circulation around the corner and keeps the space from feeling like a corridor with a table in it.

A glass-fronted timber display cabinet marks the threshold to the kitchen, holding glassware and plates in view. It does two jobs at once, storage and a soft divider, and that double duty runs through the project's joinery. In 85 m², furniture that only does one thing is a luxury the plan can't afford.

A Galley Kitchen Painted Into the Floor

Narrow galley kitchen with white cabinets, walnut tall storage and a mustard floor, a woman in a maroon dress preparing a cake

Galley kitchen with cream cabinets, a speckled stone backsplash, a gas hob and a steel faucet, with a cake on the counter

View down a pale resin-floored corridor toward a kitchen with an ochre floor and a bedroom, under white-painted concrete beams

Walnut cabinet and tall open shelving holding coffee gear, with a vase of dried flowers beside a white door

View past a rust sofa toward a hallway, where a woman in a maroon dress walks with a dog beside built-in bookshelves

The kitchen is a narrow galley, and the architects don't fight that. Cream cabinets, a speckled stone backsplash and tall walnut storage line the walls, while the floor shifts to mustard. Seen from the corridor, that ochre floor marks the kitchen as a distinct zone without a door or a step. It is wayfinding done with a single material change.

The corridor itself runs in pale resin under white beams, linking living spaces, kitchen and bedroom. Built-in bookshelves line part of the route, so the hallway carries storage instead of being leftover space. A coffee station of walnut cabinetry and open shelving sits nearby, an example of designing around a specific routine rather than a generic program.

Joinery for Books, Records and Small Rituals

Mustard armchair and ottoman in front of built-in bookshelves, a walnut cabinet and a tiled bench holding records, with a dog blurred at left

Corner reading nook with a mustard armchair, trailing pothos on the shelves and vinyl records on a white tiled bench, a dog in the foreground

Terrazzo-look shelves packed with books and a trailing pothos vine hanging down the white wall in daylight

Close-up of a hand opening a teak cabinet door beneath a cream glass lamp and a turntable

Floating teak cabinet in a white niche with a framed anthurium print, a cream lamp, a speaker and books above

Corner of a white mosaic tile tabletop holding a green marble tray, a woven straw box and a brass cuff in soft light

Here you can see that the architects designed for themselves. A corner reading nook pairs the mustard armchair and ottoman with built-in shelves, trailing pothos and a white tiled bench stacked with vinyl. A floating teak cabinet in a white niche holds a turntable, speaker and lamp. These are specific objects belonging to specific people, and the joinery is sized for them.

The material detailing rewards a close look. Terrazzo-look shelves, white mosaic tile surfaces and teak doors bring texture at hand height, where you actually touch the apartment. We'd argue this is where the custom furniture earns its place: not as statement pieces, but as surfaces tuned to records, books and morning coffee.

Working With the Copan's Screens and Views

Perforated white concrete block screen along a balcony with potted tropical plants on a yellow floor, a neighboring tower beyond

Doorway view to a balcony with a white wire chair, potted plants and a lattice screen facing an apartment block

Classical guitar hanging on a white wall above a plywood desk and leather chair, with a tall window showing neighboring towers

The balcony sits behind a perforated white concrete block screen, with potted tropical plants on a yellow floor and a neighboring tower beyond. That screen filters sun and frames the city in small pieces, the same climatic logic that drives the building's facade. The renovation keeps it and lets plants and a single wire chair fill the space.

A plywood desk with a guitar hung above it faces a tall window onto surrounding towers. Working from home in central São Paulo means living with density, and this corner accepts it, turning the skyline into the backdrop of a workspace instead of something to screen off.

Plans and Drawings

Floor plan drawing of an apartment showing dining room, living room, bedroom, bathrooms and a kitchen tinted in peach

The floor plan shows how compact the program is: dining room, living room, bedroom, bathrooms and a kitchen highlighted in peach. The kitchen tint mirrors the colored floor on site, confirming that the zoning by material was planned from the drawing board and not added as decoration.

Why This Project Matters

Renovating inside an icon carries a temptation to either freeze it or overwrite it. Balaio Arquitetura does neither. By exposing the concrete, protecting the light and the facade, and putting their design effort into furniture and finishes, they show how a heritage-grade building can absorb a contemporary life without losing its character. It is a useful model for the many modernist apartment blocks across Brazilian cities that now need careful updates rather than gut renovations.

It also makes a case for designing from routine. Because the architects are the residents, every built-in answers a real habit: where the records go, where coffee happens, where the dog sleeps. Plenty of interiors claim to be personal. This one shows what that looks like when the brief comes from daily use, carried out with collaborators including Imaliza for construction and Evanildo Soares for engineering.

Copan Apartment A by Balaio Arquitetura (lead architects Gabriel Luqui and Gabriela Russo), Copan building, São Paulo, Brazil. Area: 85 m². Completed: 2025. Photography: Leila Viegas.

About the Studio

Balaio Arquitetura

Official website of Balaio Arquitetura, one of the studios behind this project.

balaioarquitetura.com.br

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