Dezeen Magazine

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Two blocks face each other across the forecourt of this symmetrical housing development in São Paulo by local firm Corsi Hirano Arquitetos (+ slideshow).

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Situated in the outskirts of the city, Corsi Hirano Arquitetos split the eight social housing units into a pair of blocks either side of a large paved driveway where residents are encouraged to congregate.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

The line of the roof extends out over the extruded glass-fronted boxes that house the staircases, creating shelters over the entrances. Half the residences have these stairs at the front and half have them at the rear.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Each home has an open-plan living space on the ground floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, plus a small garden and an extra shower room out the back.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Wooden shutters, window and door frames break up the all-white surfaces.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Street-facing end walls of each block are detailed with vertical grooves and separated from the fence by a thin window, so that they appear to float above it.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

The development is secured by grated metal gates that slide across the front of the drive.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

We featured a housing project that references 1960s tower blocks in central São Paulo a few days ago. See more architecture in São Paulo »

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

More residential architecture on Dezeen includes blackened wood buildings teetering on the edge of a precipice in Sweden and the overhaul of the brutalist Park Hill housing estate in SheffieldSee more housing design »

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Photography is by Leonardo Finotti.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Corsi Hirano Arquitetos sent us this project description:


The AV Houses bases itself in the valuation of the public space through an architectural commitment with collective sense possible of being expressed from the private property.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

The void originated by the built elements provides the appearance of a new place, opposed to main preconceived occupations of independent parallel properties that establish no relations in itself or with public space.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Its strategy groups eight housing units in two blocks by which remaining areas delimit an intermediate space that becomes its main premise.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

Contemplating the necessity for the largest site occupation ratio and preserving the internal areas demanded for each unity, the articulation of constructed and non-constructed limits configures the collective central patio of great proportions considering the site dimensions.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos

A modest architectonical complex but representative of an essence of space that consists in a social opportunity: architecture as a city generator and venue for its inhabitants.

AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Site plan
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Ground floor plan - click for larger image
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
First floor plan - click for larger image
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Cross section - click for larger image
AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Cross section - click for larger image