AKQA, an international advertising agency, wanted to create an office with a home-like atmosphere in São Paulo. The renovation began with a two-story house. The goal was to preserve the existing house but make horizontal and vertical additions to accommodate new capabilities.
The ground floor serves as client space. The first floor houses 40 members of the staff. The second floor (vertical expansion) holds a green roof and two mezzanines, one which communicates with the reception area and creates the triple-height ceiling.
The patchwork of old iron gates and railings function as brise soleil, or sun-deflecting, heat-reducing architecture, for the new volumes of the house. There is a clear and harmonic contrast between the old house and the new additions.
