Airing Her Clean Laundry

Edie Cohen -- Interior Design, 7/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

In New York, there's the Kips Bay Decorator Show House. In São Paulo, there's Casa Cor, the Brazilian city's most prestigious annual interior design event. Casa Cor 2003 entailed transforming a 1943 maternity hospital into a high-society residential apartment complex, complete with a Zen massage room and spa as well as a laundry room by the namesake principal of Cláudia Haguiara Architecture.

One of Brazil's leading designers, she's not a name normally associated with service facilities. And her laundry room merged the utilitarian with the sophisticated. Originally three rooms, the 500-square-foot space featured a 15-foot ceiling, an eco-friendly eucalyptus floor, and newly exposed brick walls.

Haguiara acknowledged the importance of treating fragile garments with care with her quadruple sink island. Placed on an aluminum grate for water over- flow, each sink was Silestone, a durable quartz surfacing. Silestone reappeared as the 11-foot-long built-in ironing surface.

Of course, today's laundry is really about washers and driers. Favoring an industrial look, Haguiara chose four of each, in stainless steel, and installed them in a row beneath a complementary shelf for detergent.

Directly opposite, she grouped Pierre Paulin's vermilion Globe chair, Eero Saarinen's Tulip table, and Michele de Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina's Tolomeo lamp. That's wash day, international style.

From top: The laundry room at Casa Cor 2003 in São Paulo, Brazil, featured a 10-foot-long island of Silestone sinks; Pierre Paulin's Globe chair, Eero Saarinen's Tulip table, and Michele de Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina's Tolomeo lamp stood nearby. The washers, driers, and detergent shelf were stainless steel.

SINKS: BARUMAR. SINK FITTINGS: DECA. SINK, IRONING-BOARD SILESTONE: COSENTINO. WASHERS, DRIERS: BRASTEMP. FANS: MODERN FAN CO. TABLE: KNOLL THROUGH BRENTWOOD. CHAIR: ARTIFORT THROUGH BRENTWOOD. LAMP: ARTEMIDE THROUGH LA LAMPE. FLOORING: JR PATINI MADEIRAS. LIGHTING CONSULTANT: E27. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: SBN CONSTRUCTION.