The Costa Cabral / ATA building project, developed by Atelier Tiago Antero in collaboration with ENTRETEMPOS, aims to fill a gap in the urban grid by constructing a structure that uses elements, alignment, and compositional principles from neighboring buildings as a reference.
Thus, a building was designed that sits directly on the street facade, following the dominant morphology of that street, but terminates on the top floor, which steps back. This ensures both continuity on the north side and volumetric transition on the south.
Given the site dimensions—narrow but deep—two key elements defining its plan and height are located in the central part of the building: vertical entrances and a hall that runs the full height of the building.
This hall plays a crucial role in the project's bioclimatic function, as it allows natural light to penetrate into the interior spaces of kitchens and bathrooms, ensures cross-ventilation for apartments, and allows fresh air to enter the entire building through grated gates leading to the basement.
The application of this passive solution significantly increases the building's energy efficiency, leading to both improved living comfort conditions and reduced dependence on traditional mechanical systems.
The composition of the facades seeks to reinterpret the surrounding vertical and horizontal structural elements by using one material with different types of finishes. In the first case, prefabricated concrete panels arranged in various planes, in a calculated 'tetris,' are used, while in the second, raw concrete is used on site for marking slabs, irregular balconies, or protruding parapets.
The ground floor is conceived to ensure visual permeability, openly displaying its interior space to the street.
Finally, the public area is divided into two similarly sized parts: one has direct access from the ground floor, and the other has access via a pedestrian bridge at the upper level, representing a more democratic strategy for accessing the garden space.