Revolving building never inhabited goes up for auction for the 3rd time

Almost 20 years of legal imbroglios and two auctions later, 10 of the 11 apartments in the Suíte Vollard building, in Curitiba, will be individually auctioned this Friday (18), exclusively online, with an initial bid of R$ 1.415 million.

The project, which calls itself the first revolving building in the world, was inaugurated in 2004. It was pledged as a result of legal problems at Construtora Moro, responsible for the work.

In 2010, it went to auction for R$ 23.76 million, but no interested party appeared. In 2018, the auction took place, but was suspended when the construction company renegotiated the debt.

This time, it is an execution auction, which can only be avoided by paying the debt. The public auctioneer Helcio Kronberg, appointed by the court of the 21st Civil Court of Curitiba, will be in charge of the event.

According to Kronberg, the amount collected will be used to pay debts from court decisions in the labor sphere, federal tax execution, IPTU and accumulated condominium fees.

Expectations are positive. “It is believed that the sale will clear a large part of the debts of Construtora Moro, which should resume its activities,” she said.

For apartments that are not sold on the 18th, another auction will be held on the 24th, with an initial bid of R$ 849 thousand.

When announced, the cylindrical construction, which is located in a valued region of the capital of Curitiba (the Mossunguê neighborhood), gained prominence in the real estate and architectural scene.

Designed as a concept building by the architect Bruno de Franco, an admirer of Picasso, and named by him in reference to the artist’s famous series of prints, it earned the people from Curitiba the nickname “the building that spins”.

The mechanism that makes it possible to rotate is simple: the center of the structure, where the plumbing for the kitchen and bathrooms is located, is fixed.

With minimal friction, a 40 horsepower engine moves the outer ring of this core, so each floor can move independently to see different parts of the city on the same day.

For Bruno de Franco, although the prospect that the building will finally have residents is encouraging, the purchase of the apartments would have to be accompanied by a consensus among the new owners to update the property.

“There are many things that are abandoned, that have worn out, broken. To make a building like this viable, all the owners need to agree to make the necessary changes”, he points out.

Among the modifications mentioned by the architect, are repairs to the electrical and hydraulic installations and the replacement of the elevators.

Even before the Vollard Suite was pawned, which made it impossible to sell the apartments, the high value of the units also made it difficult to occupy them: when opened, each apartment cost around R$ 2.3 million. The price is equivalent to R$ 2,700 per square meter – double the average for the region at the time.

In 2008, after a BRL 13 million renovation, a relaunch was announced by the building’s management company, but it never happened. Empty, it became the target of vandalism, which made the administrator hire a 24-hour security service.

From an architectural icon, the Vollard Suite became known for its abandonment and gave rise to the creation of urban legends, such as that foreign millionaires bought apartments where they spent their holidays and even that Xuxa would own one of the lofts.

It also became a point of reference; after all, it’s hard to have someone who doesn’t know where the rotating building is.