The study investigated the notorious construction of a block of connected apartments and kitchenettes, located in the neighborhood of Botafogo in the south of Rio de Janeiro, to understand the stigma that surrounds said construction.Through a methodological approach was used participant observation, semi-structured interviews and an analysis of newspaper articles to creat a mosaic of narratives regarding the day-to-day life of the Building and to depict a style of housing that has been present in the urban landscape of the city since the mid-1950 s.It should also be noted that the narrative surrounding the building, present both in extracts from interviews and comments on social networks (such as Facebook) can be considered a result of the constant production of journalistic content that tended to use derogatory terms and names about the building and so corroborated in the elaboration of a myth about the place.This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first presents a brief history of the Botafogo neighborhood and the lavish (verticalization) construction of the southern zone that created (mainly due to radio, soap operas telenovelas and newspapers, an idealist image about this part of the city and what good living looked like, by directly linking the value of the ground and upward development and construction that was required to house the large influx of residents that would make this region of the city a project of growth and personal achievement.The second chapter is an ethnography of the building, where the thesis endeavored to demonstrate an image of everyday life through notebooks and participant recollections. The third chapter draws together interviews conducted with current residents and former residents, and largely discusses the paths adopted to complete the research in the midst of a turbulent moment in history of the world – the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how the characters that make up this style of living in twenty square meters, relate to the space, its stories and trajectories.Based on comments about the building found in newspaper clippings, obtained through the Hemeroteca Digital (an online collection of newspapers, magazines and periodicals), the fourth chapter depicts the social construction of the narrative about what the building is. The work is centered on the field of urban anthropology and employs as its starting point the works of anthropologist Gilberto Velho, as well as texts from the Chicago School.Lastly, the intention of this thesis from the construction of the chapters was to analyze within the area of urban anthropology, a building that undergoes a path of a symbol of modernity and social ascension as a stronghold for people of disrepute. The thesis presents a glimpse from within via the residents and people who pass through it as well as an impression from outside via newspapers and neighbors, and highlights how the two intersect and are intertwined, constituting a mosaic that can only be understood when all parts are analyzed.