On the crest of the forested slopes that form the suburbs of Nova Lima, a town in the south-eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, sits Xingu House, the most accomplished private residential project to date from Tetro Arquitetura. For the studio, based in nearby Belo Horizonte, this was a dream commission, starting with a completely blank slate and a client willing to push boundaries to make a bold statement.
Step inside Xingu House, a contemporary home in Minas Gerais
‘The client initially approached us before even owning the site,' says Tetro's Carlos Maia. ‘He asked us to help him find a very special plot with abundant nature in Nova Lima. Together, we visited a number of options and eventually found this site.' The 8,000 sq m plot was occupied by an old, rundown house. The bulk of the original structure was demolished, but some key elements, such as the garden walls that divided the landscape into terraces, were retained, thus ensuring the new house felt embedded in its plot from the outset.
Above all, the new owners sought a house with a dramatic presence. ‘The client wanted something genuinely different and innovative,' says Maia. ‘He has a strong interest in sculpture, and the idea of a house with a sculptural presence was part of the brief from day one.' Given the breadth of this request, there was no immediate programmatic solution; instead, the architects continuously iterated the design. ‘We developed it through a long process of study, especially using physical models,' says Maia. ‘We tested how the building could both sit on the existing terraces and keep a direct relationship to the ground, so that daily life could naturally extend outdoors and one could step straight onto the terrain.'
In part, the form was dictated by the available views. ‘There's an extraordinary panorama from the higher portion of the site, looking out to the mountains and hills of Minas Gerais,' Maia says. ‘We wanted the architecture to preserve and amplify that experience.' The result is a house that pinwheels around a central axis, raised up above ground level, with the living and sleeping areas arranged in three wings.
One of these wings, housing the primary suite, is cantilevered over the slope, while the other two touch the ground lightly at the top of the site. This form is supported by six hefty concrete pillars, whose faceted forms give an angular brutality to the ensemble, while also housing key elements, such as the stairs, bathrooms and an lift. The pillars can clearly be seen through the glass façades of the upper level, their ‘inhabitable thickness' anchoring the house to the terrace and the site.
Concrete was the most appropriate choice for the construction, especially given the relationship between the thick, cast-in-situ pillars and the existing stone terraces. The latter have been repurposed as a generous outdoor living space, complete with sitting and dining areas, a kitchen, two reflecting ponds and a swimming pool. A grotto embedded in the existing walls is now the wine and cheese cellar.
Despite the effortless appearance of the new house above its weathered site, Tetro faced numerous obstacles during construction. ‘The pillars are highly complex, organic geometries, developed through a triangulated “faceting” logic,' says Maia. ‘We had to design and coordinate the pattern triangle by triangle, and the on-site formwork required real precision.' Wherever raw concrete is visible, both outside and in, the finish is meticulous. The large floor and ceiling slabs also had to be poured in place.
With the primary suite occupying the house's most dramatic component, along with a secondary suite, two more bedrooms, an office and a self-contained guest suite are located in the other wing. The hollow concrete columns that puncture the floor slab house bathrooms and staircases, with roof lights bringing daylight into these cavernous forms. Meanwhile, a separate structure houses a spa, sauna and gym.
A linear kitchen occupies the central part of the plan, with an extended concrete counter that becomes the dining table. From here, one heads to the main living wing, which extends to the final tip, with a ribbon of glass offering up views across the site and beyond, culminating in a balcony. Key pieces of art and furniture are interspersed around the generous 1,800 sq m floor area, including a striking balancing sculpture made of steel and glass by Brazilian artist Túlio Pinto.
Acknowledging that the house ‘embodies the client's boldness and desire for innovation', Maia and his co-founders, Débora Mendes and Igor Macedo, along with the rest of the Tetro team, describe it as a demonstration of the practice's search for freedom of approach within every project. ‘Xingu House represents one of our most significant formal investigations to date,' Maia concludes. ‘[The project] brings together our recurring interest in the relationship between architecture and landscape with a new level of structural and sculptural experimentation.'
Rising dramatically above its site, the house is a contemporary take on the geometric exuberance of high Brazilian modernism, sensuous and sculptural yet also implicitly tied to its location.
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