The Prefeito Mendes de Morais Residential Project (1946), known as Pedregulho (Boulder), was the first of the residential complexes that was inaugurated. It was designed by architect Affonso Eduardo Reidy, based on Carmen Portinho’s ideas and with the collaboration of other members of the Social Housing Department. The first phase was concluded in 1950, with the market, the laundry facility, the healthcare centre (with a tile panel by Anísio Medeiros), sports courts, two residential blocks, a playground and gardens designed by Roberto Burle Marx.
One of the project’s most striking features was the laundry, which would serve all of the residents for free. Its function was to spare the women who were normally responsible for taking care of the homes from doing laundry and ironing, but also to avoid clotheslines on the façades. The idea was not new: the Olaria Residential Complex, built in 1945 by the Institute of Retirement and Pensions for Commerce Workers, also had one, but neither lasted very long.
The second phase of Pedregulho was inaugurated in 1951, with the opening of the school, the sports hall, the swimming pool and indoor locker rooms covered with tiles by Anísio Medeiros. A tile panel by Candido Portinari, realised by Paolo Rossi Osir, a Vidrotil glass mosaic and a Burle Marx fresco were completed in 1952. The complex was recognised with an award at the First São Paulo Biennial in 1951, and was celebrated in magazines from all around the world. The curvilinear block began to be occupied in 1958, but its official opening took place in 1960, when Portinho no longer headed the Social Housing Department. The vertical twelve-story residential block, the daycare centre and the nursery were never built.