AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos
Two blocks face each other across the forecourt of this symmetrical housing development in São Paulo by local firm Corsi Hirano Arquitetos (+ slideshow).
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_9sq.jpg)
Situated in the outskirts of the city, Corsi Hirano Arquitetos split the eight social housing units into a pair of blocks either side of a large paved driveway where residents are encouraged to congregate.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_6.jpg)
The line of the roof extends out over the extruded glass-fronted boxes that house the staircases, creating shelters over the entrances. Half the residences have these stairs at the front and half have them at the rear.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_8.jpg)
Each home has an open-plan living space on the ground floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, plus a small garden and an extra shower room out the back.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_27.jpg)
Wooden shutters, window and door frames break up the all-white surfaces.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_5sq.jpg)
Street-facing end walls of each block are detailed with vertical grooves and separated from the fence by a thin window, so that they appear to float above it.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_1sq.jpg)
The development is secured by grated metal gates that slide across the front of the drive.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_12.jpg)
We featured a housing project that references 1960s tower blocks in central São Paulo a few days ago. See more architecture in São Paulo »
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_13.jpg)
More residential architecture on Dezeen includes blackened wood buildings teetering on the edge of a precipice in Sweden and the overhaul of the brutalist Park Hill housing estate in Sheffield. See more housing design »
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_14.jpg)
Photography is by Leonardo Finotti.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_15.jpg)
Corsi Hirano Arquitetos sent us this project description:
The AV Houses bases itself in the valuation of the public space through an architectural commitment with collective sense possible of being expressed from the private property.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_18.jpg)
The void originated by the built elements provides the appearance of a new place, opposed to main preconceived occupations of independent parallel properties that establish no relations in itself or with public space.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_16.jpg)
Its strategy groups eight housing units in two blocks by which remaining areas delimit an intermediate space that becomes its main premise.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_17sq.jpg)
Contemplating the necessity for the largest site occupation ratio and preserving the internal areas demanded for each unity, the articulation of constructed and non-constructed limits configures the collective central patio of great proportions considering the site dimensions.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_19.jpg)
A modest architectonical complex but representative of an essence of space that consists in a social opportunity: architecture as a city generator and venue for its inhabitants.
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_20.jpg)
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![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_22.gif)
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_23.gif)
![AV Houses by Corsi Hirano Arquitetos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/08/dezeen_AV-Houses-by-Corsi-Hirano-Arquitetos_24.gif)