Just a few meters from the bustling Faria Lima is one of São Paulo’s most eccentric architectural projects: Casa Bola . Built in the 1970s, the residence ended up hidden in the landscape due to the large number of buildings around it. Even so, it has become a landmark of creative design in São Paulo!
Designed by architect Eduardo Longo, Casa Bola was born with the bold proposal of combining innovation, sustainability and an unusual format. That’s why the building continues to intrigue passers-by, attracting onlookers to its spherical shape even after almost 50 years of construction.
Have you ever noticed Casa Bola, hidden away in the São Paulo landscape?
Eduardo Longo dreamed of creating more compact housing that combined ecology and practicality. That’s how he came up with the idea of developing sets of “ball houses” and even spherical-shaped buildings – which, despite being innovative, never got off the ground.
One sketch that became a reality was Casa Bola, a prototype built in 1979 on Rua Amauri. The building, which sits above Longo’s office and serves as the architect’s residence, took five years of work to complete. With a diameter of eight meters and an internal area of 100 square meters, the building offers a compact but sophisticated space that serves as a reference for functionality and creative design.
Legacy of the project
From the outside, Casa Bola looks like a simple metal sphere. Its interior, however, surprises with its originality: only shades of beige and white, with rounded corners that seem to elongate the room. Upstairs, a room full of windows and a skylight takes advantage of more natural light, and in the basement, a toboggan serves as an “alternative exit” for the residents.
Eduardo Longo has designed more than 40 buildings in his 50-year career, but none of them has been as noteworthy as Casa Bola. Although the idea of designing spherical constructions didn’t find investors, it serves as an example of how architecture can be aligned with sustainability and waste reduction: concepts that are increasingly debated nowadays.
