This small duplex apartment in São Paulo develops intelligent solutions designed to make everyday life easier

In São Bernardo do Campo, a city within the metropolitan area of São Paulo, Studio Papaya undertakes the transformation of a 50 m² duplex apartment with the aim of turning dimensional limitation into an opportunity to explore a continuous, legible and adaptable living space. The project begins with a profound reorganisation of the ground floor. The former compartmentalised layout disappears, giving way to a single environment where entrance, kitchen, dining area and living room unfold without physical interruptions.

From the entrance, a deep green tone marks the route and establishes an initial gesture of orientation. The terrazzo flooring, in chromatic continuity, accompanies the movement towards the staircase and sets the transition between arrival and domestic life. On one side, a perforated panel clad in freijó wood brings together the functions of the entrance: hanging, placing, storing. On the other, a shoe cabinet invites a pause. This same panel rises and becomes a perforated ceiling, integrating lighting and signalling the circulation axis. It is a piece that articulates space, use and technique.

The incorporation of the former terrace into the interior expands the perception of the whole. The double height and large window introduce the presence of tree canopies and turn the façade into a lived-in balcony, with benches and planters that blur the boundary between inside and outside. Natural light dominates the scene; artificial lighting, through tracks and small suspended luminaires, accompanies it when necessary.

At the centre of the space, a table designed specifically for the apartment organises daily life. Its wooden structure incorporates a mobile stainless-steel module that unfolds when cooking or gathering requires additional surface area. The kitchen, conceived almost as a workshop, combines white fronts with exposed wooden edges and continuous steel shelving that keeps everything within reach, without unnecessary hidden objects.

The flooring reinforces the reading of the space: a cement “rug” defines the dining and living areas, while terrazzo identifies the kitchen zone. The material hierarchy — white for the technical elements, natural wood for the social areas, green for circulation and access — allows the whole to be understood without resorting to partitions.

The custom-designed joinery is fully integrated into the project. Modular shelving, mobile furniture and hybrid pieces assume multiple functions and allow the space to adapt to different situations of use. Nothing is superfluous; every element responds to a measured logic.

On the upper floor, the change in materiality accompanies a change in rhythm. Solid amendoim wood flooring and a terracotta-toned plane configure an environment intended for retreat and rest. A lattice replaces the former partition wall, separating without blocking light or visual continuity. The path towards the bedroom is accompanied by a lightweight shelving system with tension rods, holding books, objects and plants, and a curved mirror in the transitional space.

In the bedroom, the pace slows down. The solid wood floor guarantees continuity; the lighting is versatile, both functional and scenographic. A simple freijó wood headboard fixed to the wall frees the floor. The main wardrobe shifts towards the void of the double height, releasing space for the bed and providing a sense of spaciousness, while presenting itself externally in an unusual, floating manner. Cotton curtains filter the natural light and soften the atmosphere.

The architects seek coherence in every solution: walls that yield to use, materials that orient, and furniture designed as extensions of space. In this small duplex, Studio Papaya demonstrates how a meticulously designed architecture can build a comfortable way of living, where every space is used to its fullest, with intelligent solutions conceived to facilitate everyday life.

Project: SBC Apartamento.
Location: São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Area: 50 m².
Completed: 2025.
Interior Architecture: Studio Papaya.
Team: Delia Sloneanu, Samuel Garcia, Beatriz Justo y Eduarda Savian.
Execution and Management: Maroa Arquitetura y Studio Papaya.
Carpentry and Metalwork: Traccia Mobili.
Furniture: Labmobili.
Photography: Arthur Duarte.
Source: Studio Papaya.

Studio Papaya

Founded in 2016 and based in São Paulo, Studio Papaya operates as an architecture and design practice that understands the project as a territory of continuous investigation. Led by architects Samuel Garcia and Delia Sloneanu, the studio emerges from the intersection of academic and professional trajectories developed across diverse cultural contexts, and from a shared view of architecture as a process that extends beyond built form.

Its work is grounded in a careful reading of the physical, historical, social, and cultural contexts in which it operates. For Studio Papaya, designing involves organizing, deciding, and managing; understanding each commission as a complex structure of constraints and possibilities in which design acts as a mediator. This approach allows the studio to operate across different scales and programs while maintaining methodological coherence rooted in technical rigor and sensitivity to the surrounding environment.

Projects seek a precise balance between the whole and its parts, between the built and the natural, between technical demands and spatial experience. Limits are not understood as obstacles, but as constitutive elements of the process, capable of activating specific responses. In this sense, non-linear paths, unbuilt studies, and open-ended investigations form an essential part of the studio’s practice, expanding the field of the project beyond the final outcome.

The studio works with a multidisciplinary team that enables it to address architecture, interiors, and design through an integrated approach. Through drawing, research, and careful execution, Studio Papaya develops spaces, objects, and identities that aspire to transcend immediate functional responses and to establish a lasting relationship with the territories and the people they serve.

Delia Sloneanu and Samuel Garcia

Delia Sloneanu is an architect graduated from UAUIM in Bucharest, with academic training at ENSA Toulouse and professional experience in Romania, France, and Tunisia. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Contemporary Architecture at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, where she deepens a critical reflection on contemporary architectural practice.

Samuel Garcia is an architect graduated from UNESP in Bauru and holds a postgraduate degree in Geography, City, and Architecture from Escola da Cidade. His professional experience has developed within practices of different scales in Brazil and abroad, contributing to a broad understanding of architectural practice and its multiple conditions.

From this dialogue between educations, geographies, and ways of thinking, both architects lead Studio Papaya as a space of synthesis and experimentation, where the project is understood as a conscious tool for transformation, always situated and attentive to its context.

Project by Studio Papaya