Visitors to Alexandre Birman’s penthouse apartment in São Paulo are greeted by a who’s who of Brazilian modernist design. The armchair in the entry is by Lina Bo Bardi and Giancarlo Palanti, a pair of Italians who helped define Brazil’s midcentury style. There is seating by Sergio Rodrigues and Jorge Zalszupin, and a rare desk by Oscar Niemeyer’s go-to furniture designer, Joaquim Tenreiro. “I like different styles,” says Birman, a fashion entrepreneur who has his own shoe label and is head of the company that owns the fashion brand Farm Rio. “But nothing is as dear to my heart as Brazilian midcentury design.”
In postwar Brazil industrial materials like plastic and fiberglass—staples of modernism in Europe and America— were hard to come by. Designers turned instead to rich local materials such as jacaranda and pau ferro woods, leather, and cane. Often these elements were integrated into spare, even brutalist interiors, but Birman was keen to create a very different look in his home. “I wanted more refinement, something more decorated,” says the designer, who lives with his partner and three daughters. “Putting my flat together was kind of like a chemistry project.”
Shoe designer Alexandre Birman leans on a sofa by de Sede in the living area of his São Paulo apartment.
He was drawn to the six-bedroom apartment by its ample layout—and by its breathtaking vistas of São Paulo. “I’m very picky about views,” Birman says. “Whenever I go to a hotel, I usually change rooms at least twice to make sure I get the best one possible.”
The location was also ideal. The 21-story building is in the city’s upscale Jardim Europa district, just a 10-minute drive from Birman’s office and 20 minutes from the domestic airport. Most of his family lives nearby, and he is also within a stone’s throw of a sprawling sports club with three Olympic-size pools, tennis courts, and a running track (Birman is an amateur triathlete). “I’m basically at the epicenter of everything I do,” he says. “I don’t feel like I’m in a city of 11 million.”
The apartment, in a building that dates from the early 2010s, had never previously been occupied. The previous owner “bought it off-plan but never figured out what to do with it,” Birman says. He, however, knew the perfect duo to transform it: leading Brazilian interior designer Meire (pronounced “Mary”) Gomide, who has worked for his family for decades, and her associate Caroline Marzano.
Birman had a clear idea of what he wanted. He flew Marzano from Paris to Rome to check out his favorite hotel, the Bulgari, where the restaurant is paneled in polished walnut. This inspired the great room’s jacaranda-clad walls—a nod to Brazilian Modernism, to be sure, but with an added decorative flourish in the form of a geometric brass inlay pattern.
Tour Alexandre Birman’s São Paulo Home
Birman, who loves to entertain, also requested a dining table that could seat up to 16 people. Gomide created one in jacaranda and surrounded it with vintage Senior chairs by Zalszupin. The pièce de résistance: a 70-foot lap pool lined with blue sodalite on the upper-floor terrace. “It’s quite a feat of engineering,” Birman says. “It weighs 40 tons.”
The designers responded to his desire for greater refinement by sourcing several Art Deco elements, including the dining area’s Italian crystal chandeliers and a 1920 wood marquetry cabinet by the French architect Michel Dufet. They also incorporated some unusual vintage pieces, such as the curvaceous white sofa in the living area, designed by the Swiss-born John Graz, who emigrated to Brazil in 1920. The mix includes pieces by Brazilian contemporary designers, including tables and accessories by the São -Paulo–based Lucas Recchia. “He works with unusual shapes that add personality to any project,” Marzano says.
The blue sodalite swimming pool overlooks São Paulo on the terrace.
The result is an apartment that is not only strikingly original but also perfectly suited to Birman’s lifestyle. His work means he’s rarely in the same place for more than five nights in a row. When he is in town, he likes nothing more than spending time at home, enjoying a Sunday night cheeseburger with his daughters. “I can count on one hand the number of times I go out in São Paulo in a year,” he says. “Everything here has been designed meticulously for my needs. It’s very much my nest.”
This story originally appeared in the April 2025 issue of Elle Decor. SUBSCRIBE
