Excerpt: Balduino, a housing project by OSPA Arquitetura & Urbanismo, reimagines urban living by blending the intimacy of a house with the convenience of a condominium. Its stepped design minimizes impact while creating private terraces, enhancing social interaction and property value. Thoughtful circulation, natural materials, and seamless indoor-outdoor connections define its refined, modern character.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Located in a bucolic and predominantly single-family residential neighborhood, “Balduino” is a development that seeks a direct relationship with its surroundings by offering 11 unique apartments that provide the experience of living in a house while maintaining the convenience and security of a condominium.
Its stepped volumetry reduces its impact on neighboring buildings, creating private terraces for the units. This design enhances the social activity within the city and adds value to the properties by increasing their private areas without fully utilizing the construction potential allowed by regulations.
The building’s construction strategy is straightforward, with exposed concrete slabs creating distinct horizontal lines on the façades. Vertically, the volume features floor-to-ceiling windows and wooden slatted panels that can be opened or closed according to the residents’ preferences, ensuring flexibility in privacy and natural lighting.
Adjacent to the entrance, there is a gourmet lounge that serves both casual and formal gatherings. Its generous openings and outdoor space provide views of the city, reinforcing the desire to connect internal and external spaces, private and public.
At the center of the floor plan, an open staircase breaks away from pure functionality, inviting residents to use it instead of the elevators. The common circulation areas are clad in irregular basalt, a stone commonly found in Porto Alegre, emphasizing the direct relationship between the building and the metropolis.
The development offers garden-type apartments with stone-clad pools, as well as apartments and duplexes with natural wood decks on the terraces and even the option of a hot tub with Platinum quartzite finishes. The private areas range from 100 to 225 square meters per unit.
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