São Paulo, Brazil

Promoting total fluidity between the exterior and the interior spaces, Triptyque Architecture along with Rodrigo Oliveira creates Onze22, a residential building that invites people to relate to the city, not as something that is outside – here, the view composes the spaces as if they were part of the decoration as a result of its structure framing the urban landscape in 360 degrees.

“Each point on the balcony invites you to observe São Paulo, providing endless views and, at the corners, the possibility of letting your gaze go in different directions,” says Gui Sibaud, founding partner of the TRIPTYQUE agency, which designed the project.

The building’s transparent skin ensures that the spaces of the studios and apartments are bathed in natural light. A covered balcony surrounds them entirely, expanding the spaces and ensuring protection against excess sun.

Triptyque’s fourth project for IdeaZarvos! in Vila Madalena, São Paulo, Onze22 seems to emerge from a green belt, as if it were a dominant living tree.

The building is “planted” at Rua Agissê 287, close to a large tree-lined square, and manifests the activism of the French-Brazilian agency for a new pact between nature and the city. 

On the ground floor of the development, comprised of two towers (home and studio,) the 6m high pillars facilitate dialogue with the surroundings.

“Pilotis allow for a smooth and diffused transition between the public (the street) and the private,” explains Olivier Raffaëlli, founding partner of Triptyque.

The landscaping, designed by Rodrigo Oliveira, extends the exuberant vegetation of the neighboring square into the grounds in an exercise of continuity.

This tropical garden envelops the common areas — also entirely glazed — of a building without fences, whose original geometry makes it difficult to differentiate between the facade and the back of the building (in Onze22, all sides are facades).

The first floors overlook the square and, from the upper floors, the open panorama of the neighborhood offers breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape.

Project: Onze22
Architects: Triptyque Architecture
Lead Architect: Gui Sibaud
Design Team: Larissa Higa, Victor Hertel, Marina Olivi, and Natália Shiroma
Landscape Architect: Rodrigo Oliveira
Client: Idea!Zarvos
Photographers: Maíra Acayaba e Edu Castello, Maíra Acayaba