The houses that drew modernism between Alto de Pinheiros and Vila Madalena

Between Pinheiros and Vila Madalena stands a project by Carlos Lemos and Eduardo Corona, two names who worked alongside Oscar Niemeyer on works such as the Copan Building and Ibirapuera Park before signing residences in the area.

Another chapter belongs to Eduardo Kneese de Mello, the São Paulo architect behind landmarks such as the IAPI housing complexes, the Ana Rosa Residential Complex and the Crusp at the University of São Paulo. A house of his in the area, from 1966, carries the same rigour of plan he would bring to the large public complexes.

The list of names who left residential projects in São Paulo includes Lina Bo Bardi, Vilanova Artigas, Gregori Warchavchik and Jorge Zalszupin, each with a different way of resolving light, structure and the meeting of house and garden.

What these houses share is structural before it is aesthetic: few columns, open spans, large expanses of glass and a direct relationship with the garden. Design decisions that now appear in any high-end renovation, but which were born here decades before they became a trend.

Living on these streets means living, even without noticing day to day, alongside a considerable piece of the history of Brazilian architecture.