Talita Nogueira: Interior architecture with different flavours

This prestigious Brazilian architect graduated from the Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR) and completed her studies at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. She is the recipient of interior design magazine Kaza's New Talent Award.

Each phase of life comes with its own flavour or a combination of several flavours. According science, the five basic flavours are sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami. This little known fifth flavour, which was only proven to exist in the early twentieth century by a Japanese researcher, is characterized by its long-lasting taste. The name umami comes from Japanese and means "delicious" or "tasty."

If childhood is sweet, adolescence sour, and adult life bittersweet, then maturity is umami. It is a phase of life in which you know what you want, you value the good things, and above all, you are aware of the importance of time. Wanting to savour more family life and do more cooking together led the owners of this home, in the Pilarzinho neighbourhood of Curitiba, Brazil, to completely revitalize the over 5,000 square foot property.

The architect, Talita Nogueira, who had already renovated the exterior of the house was responsible for the renovation: "As the owners had lived in several countries they had references of very high quality products, and a very contemporary view of what they wanted in the project," says Nogueira. Among the preferences detailed by the residents are the use of concrete, works of art, dark colour palettes, many mirrors, and white surfaces for the kitchen. All of these elements were incorporated into the project. "Since I already knew the customers that made it much easier to follow their line of thinking. They completely trusted our work, and this greatly helped the process of creation and execution of the project," she affirms.

Modifications were also made in the owner's favourite space, which was the kitchen. "The owner is passionate about cooking. She did a baking course and loves to cook for the family" explains Talita. The new layout integrated the kitchen and dining room. The dining table juts out perpendicularly from a large countertop in stain-resistant Dekton Aura with marbled white texture. "Dekton is a type of material that does not break, does not scratch, and is super heat-resistant. A very high-tech product", notes the architect.