André Guerra Arquitetos Completes 39-Square-Metre Butantã House in São Paulo

André Guerra Arquitetos has completed the Butantã House, a 39-square-metre residential project in the Butantã district of São Paulo, Brazil, dated 2023.

The project, published by ArchDaily and curated by Susanna Moreira, hinges on a single design tension. In the architects' own words, the house "lives in the balance between permanence and transformation."

The intervention preserved the original burned concrete floor. Above it, the wooden truss received a coat of white paint. The architects explain the reasoning in their project description: the white truss was painted "to draw the eye upward and bring a sense of spaciousness."

Within the compact 39-square-metre footprint, the designers concentrated their changes on two elements: custom millwork and a reconfigured layout of loose furniture. The resulting interiors pair clean lines with natural tones.

The plan integrates three domestic functions — cooking, entertaining, and living — into one fluid sequence. Photography by Camila Alba documents the kitchen with its wood countertop, the dining area, and the living space, all defined by timber surfaces, integrated lighting, and the exposed structural truss overhead.

André Guerra served as lead architect, with a project team comprising André Guerra and Michel Blanco.

The Butantã House joins a body of São Paulo residential work that treats existing fabric as raw material rather than obstruction — here, a burned concrete floor and a structural truss set the terms for everything added above and around them.