In Brazil, Making a Huge Space ‘Cozy’ Is a Big Challenge

When Hugo Leal and Mariana Queiroz decided to remake a two-story penthouse in São Paulo, Brazil, as their family home, they encountered a problem few homeowners need to worry about: it seemed too big, and too grand.

The 12,900-square-foot apartment had been in Ms. Queiroz’s family for years, and she had lived there for a time when she was younger.

“It’s a huge apartment and we wanted to make it somehow a little cozier,” said Ms. Queiroz, 43, a lawyer who works for her family’s business, which controls a pharmaceutical company.

The ceilings on the second floor are nearly 18 feet high, added Mr. Leal, 50, a partner at a law firm, which made the space feel something like a grand hotel lobby. “It was not so intimate, and not so comfortable,” he said.

The couple wanted to make the home more inviting not only for themselves but also for their 11-year-old twin daughters and 13-year-old son. They already owned a collection of midcentury modern furniture, including pieces by revered Brazil-based designers such as Jorge Zalszupin, Sergio Rodrigues and Jean Gillon, but knew that making the home feel more intimate would require more than changing the furniture.

To renovate it, they hired Coletivo Arquitetos, a São Paulo-based architecture firm run by Cesar and Daniela Coppola.

“We are very interested in the intersection of architecture and neuroscience, and how the built environment affects not just our cognition and mood, but our health,” said Ms. Coppola. In this case, she noted, “we had the challenge of working in a beautiful space that has an amazing view, but at a huge scale.”

To create an immediate sense of warmth, the architects lined much of the interior with white oak, including slatted wall paneling, large-scale pivoting and sliding doors, and built-in shelving and cabinetry. On the second floor, they stopped the wood paneling about three feet short of the ceiling to visually reduce the height of the rooms.

“That makes it more cozy,” Mr. Coppola said, “not just because it’s wood, but because it is not touching the ceiling, so it is a little bit lower.”

Then, they aimed to create the same trompe l’oeil effect with furniture, art and accessories. To illuminate the living room, for instance, they added four Gubi floor lamps between two seating areas rather than relying solely on ceiling fixtures.

They installed low-slung furniture, including a rosewood coffee table and chairs by Mr. Zalszupin the couple already owned, and a pair of tan leather 1970s Sesann sofas by Gianfranco Frattini, which Ms. Queiroz had long coveted and finally purchased for the home.

“I joke that I’m more excited to have new furniture than new jewelry,” Ms. Queiroz said. “When the furniture arrived for this project, I was so excited to open it, to see it, to enjoy it.”

They also installed sheer drapery over the oversized windows to soften sunlight pouring into the space and added potted fiddle leaf fig trees.

“We have natural elements all over the apartment — wood, stone, a lot of greens, leather,” Ms. Coppola said. “These are all things that relate to the human in a positive way,” she said, to foster a feeling of wellness.

The architects designed other spaces to cater to the family’s favorite activities and interests. Because they all love reading and have a large book collection, the Coppolas lavished special attention on a library where they designed oak bookcases with integrated lights. The lights resemble metal book ends and are mounted on the shelves in an irregular pattern. When turned on, they bathe the backs of the shelves with a warm glow.

Ms. Queiroz enjoys making ceramics with her children, so the apartment includes an art studio where they can work with clay and other materials. “They do slime too,” Ms. Queiroz said with a laugh.

The architects also created two home offices. Ms. Queiroz’s office is lined in more oak, including a wood ceiling, and has a wall composed of pivoting wood doors so the whole room can be open to the rest of the house. The idea, Ms. Coppola said, is that Ms. Queiroz can close the doors when she needs privacy, but can work in the open at other times, when she wants to be accessible to her children.

Mr. Leal’s office reflects a different solution to the same challenge. Up a spiral staircase on a mezzanine, it overlooks the family room through a wall of slats that can be opened and closed as needed.

Construction, including the extensive woodwork made by Prime Marcenaria, took a little more than one year and was complete at the end of 2024, at a cost of about $3 million.

After moving in, the family temporarily relocated to Greenwich, Conn., but are returning to São Paulo this summer.

They will miss living in a house with a yard when they return to São Paulo, Mr. Leal said, but look forward to enjoying the apartment they created with the Coppolas once again.

“Living in this penthouse is almost like living in a house,” he said, “but suspended.”