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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
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.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Valencia House by Padovani Arquitetos cuts a striking figure in the Brazilian landscape
Valencia House is a sprawling new holiday retreat in the hills outside São Paulo that mixes the timeless forms of Brazilian modernism with expansive guest facilities
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
This contemporary Brazilian home lies low and takes in its countryside context
A Brazilian home by practice Jacobsen Arquitetura, MS Residence unites nature and contemporary architecture outside São Paulo
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Niemeyer’s modernism celebrated in Oscar Ibirapuera, an example of 21st-century São Paulo living
Perkins&Will completes Oscar Ibirapuera, next to Niemeyer’s modernist landmark park in São Paulo, Brazil
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Canopy House in Brazil is designed so ‘you can always hear the birds’
Canopy House is raised on concrete columns to offer treetop views of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest; a holiday home by Studio MK27 that is not only open plan, but open to the elements
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The Brazilian Forest House injects art into a modernist-inspired, contemporary design
The Brazilian Forest House, designed in upstate São Paulo by FGMF, brings together nature and art
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Marcio Kogan’s Studio MK27 celebrated in this new monograph from Rizzoli
‘The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action’ is a richly illustrated journey through the evolution of this famed Brazilian architecture studio
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Brazil’s Casa Subtração contrasts dramatic concrete brutalism with openness
Casa Subtração by FGMF is defined by brutalist concrete and sharp angles that contrast with the green Brazilian landscape
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Arthur Casas’ Pacaembu House wins Best Urban Bolthole in Wallpaper* Design Awards 2024
Pacaembu House by Arthur Casas is a São Paulo residence that feels like an idyllic escape
By Scott Mitchem Published