Offering its own twist on the concept of treetop living, Casa Monoculo is a contemporary Brazilian home raised above a densely wooded area of Eldorado, a neighbourhood of Alto Paraiso City. The brainchild of Brasília-based architect Alan Chu, this is a treehouse, but not as you know it; it’s also as expansive and modern as the finest villas, making the most of its setting, views and scale in one fell swoop.
Casa Monoculo: life above the treetops
Working with unusual conditions – the plot is near the city centre, but at the same time is engulfed in greenery and preserved Cerrado vegetation – Chu opted for a sensitive approach. His plan was to elevate the structure from the ground, to avoid disturbing the existing nature and cutting trees down. As a result, not only does the house, set on 12 black metal pillars five metres above ground, touch lightly on the forest floor, but it also offers its lucky residents long vistas of the city, the sunrise, and the mountains in the distance.
Named after the traditional monocle (translating to 'monóculo' in Portuguese), the home was designed to frame experiences, capture and magnify its inspiring environment through its privileged and unconventional set-up. A winding staircase guides visitors from the ground to the house above, ensuring everyone connects to the surroundings on the journey up.
'The Monóculo house has been designed to not only leave an everlasting memory of the view but to have provided its guests with a unique and unforgettable experience,' Chu concludes, in a written statement.
-
Brazilian design has a new home in LondonTomorrow (October 16 2025), JIG Studio lands in London. The design collective will serve as a gallery, retail destination and cultural platform for Brazilian creatives
-
Like a modernist iceberg, this Krakow house has a perfectly chiselled façadeA Krakow house by Polish architecture studio UCEES unites brutalist materialities with modernist form
-
Leo Costelloe turns the kitchen into a site of fantasy and uneaseFor Frieze week, Costelloe transforms everyday domesticity into something intimate, surreal and faintly haunted at The Shop at Sadie Coles
-
A postmodernist home reborn: we tour the British embassy in BrazilWe tour the British Embassy in Brazil after its thorough renovation by Hersen Mendes Arquitetura, which breathes new life into a postmodernist structure within the country's famous modernist capital
-
A new concrete house in São Paulo state is designed to open up to its hillside viewsArchitects Fernanda Padula and Juliana Risso have shaped this family house in Brazil from meticulously poured concrete forms, precise joinery and a close relationship with the landscape
-
Meet Carmen Portinho, the pioneering engineer who shaped Brazilian architectureCarmen Portinho’s pioneering vision shaped Brazil’s social housing, museums and modernist identity. A new exhibition in Rio finally gives her work the recognition it deserves
-
An upstate São Paulo house is rooted in culture and the location that inspires itBalancing tradition and modernity, upstate São Paulo house Casa MM by Equipe Lamas is ‘an oasis of intimacy within a residential setting’
-
A masterful house in São Paulo invites jungle vegetation, water and natural light inA house in São Paulo by Meireles + Pavan Arquitetura, FR House, is a richly curated series of spaces designed to create worlds within worlds
-
Meet Rodrigo Oliveira, landscape architect to some of Brazil’s finest buildingsWe delve into Rodrigo Oliveira's naturalistic approach and explore his landscape architecture work, gracing buildings designed by some of Brazil's finest contemporary architects
-
A rammed-earth house near Brasília pairs the traditional technique with contemporary formsValéria Gontijo + Architects has completed Casa Taipa, pairing earthy tones and natural materials with refined design and a generous floorplan
-
Experience the profound power of the Brumadinho Memorial, honouring the victims of Brazil’s mining tragedyA deeply moving memorial by Gustavo Penna creates a space for collective mourning and remembrance in Brumadiño, Brazil
