Palazzo Ducale

History

Palazzo Ducale was born from a meeting between SKRi and the practice Arqdoninii — architects Marco Donini and Francisco Zelesnikar. The project began in 1997 and construction was completed in 2001, following the sequence of Italian-named developments with which the developer marked the 1990s and 2000s in São Paulo. The plot dictated the design concept: it was the last on the street, with all four sides unobstructed and no chance that a later building would rise ahead to block the open view over Parque Ibirapuerai and over the inner blocks of Jardinsi. The architects read the plot as a shop window, and designed the building to be seen from every angle and to look back.

• Concept: the plot as shop window — four exposed façades and a view the city cannot take away; the balcony stops being an appendage and becomes the project’s central subject.
• Trivia: the building is one of fifteen projects selected for the monograph Editora Monolito published on SKRi‘s thirty years, alongside works by Isay Weinfeld, Marcio Kogan and Angelo Bucci. The external cladding is not paint: it is a mosaic of transparent tiles developed to order for this building, chosen to follow the curved panels, reflect natural light and not age like paint would.

Architecture and aesthetics

The balcony is the decision that organises the building. Marco Donini and Francisco Zelesnikar wanted the terraces cantilevered and without an edge beam — a solution that required structuring them as solid slabs and that leaves the curved outline light, without the heavy frame a beam would impose. The gesture also has a practical consequence beyond the aesthetic: the balcony shades the apartment throughout the day, as the sun changes height, and reduces the air-conditioning load of the west-facing rooms. So as not to waste the view, the window frames were treated as a design item, with a large glass assembly opening from the corner of the living room; each terrace’s balustrade is made of rectangular-profile aluminium bars, curved to follow the movement of the concrete. The balcony floors are of travertine marble. The structural boldness also widened the spans between columns, which opens up the view from the social areas and makes the parking levels more comfortable. Aluminium, stone and glass are the predominant materials; the landscaping is by Jamil Kfourii.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: 1 single tower, exclusively residential. The number of floors and units is not documented in a public source and is not attributed here.
• Sizes: 335 m² in the layout most frequently seen on the market, reaching 600 m² in the larger units, with 3 to 4 bedrooms.
• Parking: 4 in the standard layout; up to 5 in the larger units.
• Structural highlights: curved cantilevered balconies, structured as solid slabs and without an edge beam; widened spans between columns, benefiting the view from the social areas and circulation in the car park; large-span window frames opening from the corner of the living room; central air conditioning per unit, with ducts and equipment built in invisibly inside and out; foundation on piles and pile driving.
• Registry and parameters: plot of 1,158 m² · built area of 7,501 m² · 1 tower · project started in 1997 · construction completed in 2001 · structure by Aluízio D’Ávila Engenharia de Projetos · foundations by SOLO.NET · electrical and hydraulic installations by Rewald Engenharia · climate control by Thermoplan Engenharia Térmica · registry jurisdiction 13th São Paulo Property Registryi.

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Jardim Paulista: the address

Jardim Paulistai is the neighbourhood where São Paulo learned to live well and never unlearned it, and Rua Peixoto Gomide is one of its spines: it begins near Avenida Paulistai and runs down through the residential core of Jardinsi, crossing the street-level shops, galleries and tables that made the neighbourhood’s name. Palazzo Ducale sits at the end of that descent, in its quietest stretch, where the fabric becomes almost entirely residential. It is an address that does not depend on novelty: the streets, the tree cover and the shops have been consolidated for decades, and recent high-rise development has found little land to grow into around there.