21 Studios in Vila Madalena

Twenty-one studio flats renovated in the same building, in the Vila Madalena district of São Paulo, and handed over in 45 days. Korner carried out the porcelain flooring, joinery, lighting, new power points, shower enclosures, taps and fittings, appliances, furniture and general painting.

Twenty-one units in 45 days works out at a little over two days per flat. The schedule does not come from any one trade moving faster, but from trades moving through different units at the same time: flooring runs on one floor while joinery goes in on the one below. That requires the layout to be fully resolved before the first unit. Any change after that repeats twenty-one times.

The ceiling is exposed slab, with no plasterboard to recess fittings into. Lighting runs on track spots fixed to the slab itself, which leaves every point in plain sight and moves the decision back to design: position, alignment and power feed were settled on paper, because on site there is no ceiling void to correct them in.

Inside the unit, a joinery panel separates the bed from the living area without closing it off, carrying shallow niches on the living side. The kitchen runs along the wall with a black granite counter, an undermounted sink and white tiling up to the wall units; the bathroom repeats the black granite, with a countertop basin and a full-height mirror. Large-format porcelain runs from the entrance to the balcony, and the units were handed over ready to let: furnished, equipped and styled.