This Brazilian house uses concrete and wood to screen a sleek horizontal living space
The Brazilian house in Minas Gerais by Tetro Arquitetura is designed to elevate and simplify the art of one-level living

Tetro Arquitetura’s Laguna House continues the firm’s run of sleek contemporary dwellings that exploit the contours and views of their plot. Located in Nova Lima in Minas Gerais, overlooking a lake with mountains in the distance, the four-bedroom Brazilian house is an exercise in minimal planning.
The house is accessed via these shallow concrete steps
A Brazilian house by Tetro Arquitetura
Led by architects Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes and Igor Macedo, the two-storey house is raised up on a rectangular core and an array of slender pillars. This slightly sunken lower level contains three ensuite guest bedrooms as well as a covered terrace with an outdoor kitchen and dining area.
The entrance is reached via a courtyard garden
Above it are the main living spaces, set beneath a large rectangular concrete slab roof, punctured by a large square courtyard. A master bedroom cantilevers out over the garden, facing south-west, flanked by a generous walk-in wardrobe. The kitchen, utility room and staff accommodation follow the line of the row of bedrooms below, with an external covered walkway providing secondary access.
The master bedroom is cantilevered out over the sunken garden
The main entrance is up a series of shallow concrete steps that follow the rise of the land and take you up to a covered porch alongside the courtyard garden. The house is entered directly into the main living space, with a areas for seating and dining alongside the kitchen. Sliding glass doors open onto a south-facing covered balcony.
The lower floor contains an external kitchen and dining space
Throughout the house, raw concrete is paired with natural stone and vertical hardwood slats for privacy and sun screening, with aluminium framed windows that span floor to ceiling. The oversailing concrete roof also helps reduce solar gain, ensuring that only late afternoon sun reaches the interior spaces.
An oversailing roof and timber screens shade the house from the sun
The plan also emphasises simplicity; with the three guest bedrooms on the lower level, everything the owners need for their own day to day life is kept on the principal floor. This reduces the need to use the stairs (one of their requests), except at weekends, when relatives and guests come to stay.
Viewing the entrance courtyard from within
Other recent Tetro projects include the Treetop House and the Café House, each illustrating a very different approach to shaping a dwelling around the demands of site and client.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
Dyson pares down the vacuum cleaner to its most minimal form with the PencilVac
Enabled by new motor technology, Dyson’s forthcoming PencilVac is designed to squeeze into spots other vacuums can’t go
-
Welcome to io: OpenAI acquires Jony Ive’s secret startup to shape the form of future AI
Jony Ive’s LoveFrom has spent two years assembling io, a crack team of specialists to visualise the physical form of Artificial Intelligence. Newly acquired by Sam Altman at ChatGPT, this tech supergroup hopes to re-shape the landscape of Silicon Valley and our relationship with tech
-
Chelsea Flower Show unfurled: a year of pause, thought and promise
This week’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show – now in its 112th year – has begun to reveal its defining spirit. This year is one of tentative readjustment: a reassuring exploration of the ‘future garden’, and the ways in which landscape design might tackle climate and conservation challenges
-
A Brazil office makes the most of its tropical location
We tour of a new Brazil office engulfed in greenery – welcome to Gabriel Faria Lima Corporate by Perkins & Will
-
Oscar Niemeyer: a guide to the Brazilian modernist, from big hits to lesser-known gems
Architecture master Oscar Niemeyer defined 20th-century architecture and is synonymous with Brazilian modernism; our ultimate guide explores his work, from lesser-known schemes to his big hits; and we revisit a check-in with the man himself
-
Inspired by 1970s Brazilian brutalism, Arches House is rich in colour and expression
Akitito Arquitetura blends Brazilian brutalism with fresh colours, bringing warmth and energy into a renovated family home in São Paulo
-
A Brazilian house is a soothing oasis inspired by the black sands of Iceland
Turmalina, a Brazilian house by architect Tulio Xenofonte, blends contemporary architecture with the cleansing energy of black tourmaline, creating a secluded retreat
-
The new MASP expansion in São Paulo goes tall
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) expands with a project named after Pietro Maria Bardi (the institution's first director), designed by Metro Architects
-
An Upstate Sao Paulo house embraces calm and the surrounding rolling hills
BGM House, an Upstate Sao Paulo house by Jacobsen Arquitetura, is a low, balanced affair making the most of its rural setting
-
Step inside the secret sanctuary of Rua Polonia House in São Paulo
Rua Polonia House by Gabriel Kogan and Guilherme Pianca together with Clara Werneck is an urban sanctuary in the bustling Brazilian metropolis
-
São Paulo's Pacaembu stadium gets a makeover: we go behind the scenes with architect Sol Camacho
Pacaembu stadium, a São Paulo sporting icon, is being refurbished; the first phase is now complete, its architect Sol Camacho takes us on a tour