ASA HOUSE

Sitting on the top of a hill where a preexisting property was located, the Asa House (‘asa’ is the Portuguese word for wing) entirely rebuilt the relationship between site and building. The house creates a ‘harmoniously contrasting’ relationship between landscape and architecture through the articulation of partially underground spaces and emerging transparent volumes. The site’s topography was designed in order to maximize the use of existing semi-flat surfaces as outdoor living areas while fitting key functional, circulation and soil stabilization elements in-between retaining walls. All access to the house – from visitors to staff – is done through this ‘topographic plinth’, which slowly uncurtains the surrounding landscape through sinuous passageways adapted to the original topography.

The distribution of all technical and service areas is also done through the plinth, including HVAC, parking, laundry, among others, which allows all systems to be centrally controlled and constantly monitored for efficiency. It also accommodates some amenities that are connected to outdoor activities, such as a gym and a sauna. The house’s main social and living areas sit on top of this plinth in a volume made of glass and granite, which resembles a garden pavilion as seen from the garden. Its thin, curved roof (the ‘wing’) extends well beyond its limits, providing important environmental protection to living and dining areas. Its large glass panes slide entirely within the walls that cap the volume underneath the ‘wing’, allowing interior spaces to be completely open to the outdoor and to become one wide varanda.

The glass panes are equipped with automated skins that roll down to control natural light and temperature. The wooden walls that cap each edge of this volume enclose more private spaces, a home-office and a kitchen. The private section of the house, where bedrooms and suites are located, are housed in a granite volume perpendicular to the ‘wing’. Its granite façade and smaller windows provide more intimate views to the garden while protecting the privacy of the bedrooms. A separate unit that connects to the main house through the garden was designed as both a guest house and a covered dining area equipped with a small kitchen and a barbecue pit.

The house has a total built area of 3300 sqm. The external walls of the plinth have been built with pigmented concrete. The top volume is made with galvanized steel structure with drywall enclosing covered with ‘freijó’ and ‘cumaru’ wood, native trees of Brazil. The curved roof is composed table made of steel and concrete slabs with waterproofing done with over thermo-molded film. Interior flooring is made with 0.3x3m ‘cumaru’ pieces, while outdoor areas are covered with gray granite extracted locally. The social areas of the house are enclosed by large-scale, sliding panes made of 18mm laminated glass in minimalist aluminum profiles. All HVAC and MEH infrastructure are centrally monitored for performance and are distributed throughout the periphery of the concrete plinth, allowing for easy maintenance access hidden from residents and visitors. The gardens have been designed with the use of native plants typical of the Atlantic Rainforest. The guest annex and private areas are covered with granite plates over metallic structure.

Asa House establishes a unique relationship with the site that boosts its sublime and delicate beauty. Veiled technical and structural systems enable the house to fully express its delicate transparency and connection to nature with minimal interference, while its life support systems apply the most up-to-date, and energy efficient sustainable technologies. The house is a unique example of the interplay between a highly abstract spatial concept with complex infrastructural systems.

CCM APT

With a very segmented original plan, the project for the renovation of this apartment united the spaces and integrated the entire private area. The family nucleus consists of the children’s suites, joined in a large suite – with the possibility of conversion for two in the future -, the couple’s suite and a private living room. A continuous circulation axis, all covered in wooden panels, was created between the living and dining room and the private area, giving access to the office and the service areas. In the dining room, a light stainless steel bookcase on the sideboard with a mirror in the background reflects the landscape of the Guanabara Bay and the Sugarloaf Mountain.

The materials were chosen considering the concepts of technology, lightness, and contemporaneity. Corian was used in all wet areas, from the kitchen and laundry to the bathrooms of the suites. The floor of the entire apartment is of gray granite in large slabs, to enlarge the environments and provoke the sensation of continuity. The granite used is a Brazilian natural stone in shades of warm gray and sand tones, and the mat finish used in the apartment seeks its most natural state. The wood used in the panels and joinery of the rooms is the natural Freijó wood in honey tone, which contrasts with the floor, warms, and gives comfort.

The pieces of furniture were chosen by the clients, a young family with two small children, combining the design of the 1950s with a contemporary aesthetic. In the living room, the Presidential armchairs, the Guanabara dining table, and the Senior armchairs were designed by Jorge Zalszupin and reissued by Etel. Bernardes Arquitetura designed both coffee tables in partnership with Etel. The curved sofa was also designed by the office, in collaboration with the upholsterer Carlos Rosa. The solid wood log sideboard is an essential element that joins living and dining and serves as a support for both spaces. The kitchen was designed to be clean and practical, combining technology and design, at the request of customers, with Gaggenau equipment, furniture from Valcucine, and a lunch table in solid and stainless Freijó wood, designed by Bernardes Arquitetura.

GLORIA HOTEL

BELA VISTA HOUSE

Bela Vista House is the result of the intersections between apparently divergent housing types: a patio house laid out in a square plan; and superimposed linear blocks inserted in the topography by carefully located retaining walls. These differences are responsible not only for the insertion of the house in the landscape, which create a contrast between the topographic plinth and the transparent volume topping it, but also for splitting social and intimate functions. The difference in level between these areas have independent car accesses, which facilitate the parking management of visitors, residents, and service providers. The volumes that cap the hill, which redesign its perimeter overlooking the valley in a square shape, accommodate bedrooms and private living areas. On top of it, the glass volume built around a patio houses all social spaces of the house: living, reception, dinning, among others.

Its glass panes are protected by automatic translucent meshes for thermal and natural lighting regulation. Horizontal and vertical circulations all take place around the patio, which doubles in function as a rain garden. Its roof collects rainwater and direct it to the patio, where it is collected for reuse as greywater in the house. The opposite volume, which is partially inserted in the terrain, gives support for pool and outdoor activities, with amenities such as: sauna, gym, barbeque pit, and others. The linear pool and deck that connect them leans over the landscape by creating and infinity edge on the plinth. The only part of the house disconnected from the plinth, but that remains inserted in the hill, is a private granite volume that contains guest rooms.

The house has a total built area of 2650 sqm. The plinth is made of peripheral concrete retaining walls covered with pre-fabricated, high-resistance concrete panels. The glass volume is enclosed by large-scale, sliding panes made of 18mm laminated glass, while its roof was made in CCM (copper composite material) over thermo-molded waterproofing film.

Casa Bela Vista is a unique example of the combination of architecture and landscape architecture to achieve a seamless intervention whose programmatic, spatial and technical solutions form a single gesture. The interplay between the hill, plinth and patio pavilion generate exceptional spatial qualities that are fully weaved with surrounding views and gardens. In this context, it is hard to drawn clear lines between what could be considered landscape and building. The distribution of flows and different levels access to both the house and the gardens are also controlled by insertions of building into the topography and bridges. This creates a singular intervention that exemplifies innovative means to integrate architecture and site.

 

NS APT

With an original segmented floor plan, the project for the renovation of this 400 square meters apartment in São Paulo city united the spaces and integrated the entire social area. Seeking to create a visual unity, the main living wall was entirely covered in wood panels, which through mimicked doors – opening and pivoting – from floor to ceiling, give access to the TV room, kitchen, toilet and intimate area. On the walls with windows, the L-shaped joinery is an important element, responsible for space for books and exhibition of the client’s pieces of art, uniting living and dining and also serving as support for both spaces.

In this project, the material palette was chosen taking into account the concepts of coziness and contemporaneity, and also seeking to create a neutral base for the artworks and furniture to assume the main role. The floor of the entire apartment is in marble and the wood used in the panels and joinery is natural Freijó, which in contrast with the floor, heats visually the space and provides comfort. In the toilet, the floor material is reinterpreted as it is sculpted into a linear vat with a gutter design, fixed only on the side walls, appearing to float.

The furniture were chosen together with the client, bringing together modern national and international design from a contemporary aesthetic. In the living room, the sofa MP081 by Percival Lafer, the Cloud armchairs by Diesel, and the Tariki bench by Jacqueline Terpins stand out. Meanwhile, in the TV room, which also plays the role of a library, Jangada armchair by Jean Gillon and Chaise Longue by Charles and Ray Eames. The upholstery is made of leather, linen and velvet in brown and gray tones, in harmony with the palette of the spaces’ surfaces.

To create an intimate atmosphere, the hall was covered with wooden sheets and in the lighting project developed in partnership with Estúdio Carlos Fortes, a tensioned canvas was applied, which, added to the lamps in the upper area, produces indirect lighting through translucency.

ABK HOUSE

The original house, designed by modern architect Sergio Bernardes in 1960, was found in precarious state. As much of his works, the house was originally designed to allow the much of its environmental control systems to be done passively using air cushions between roof and ceiling surfaces, controllable brise soleils, among others. However, much of its original spatial and material features had been stripped out by either the careless displacement or addition of certain elements.

The renovation aimed at reinvigorating the house’s original characteristics while updating its spaces, infrastructure and energy performance. The house’s private areas were also expanded to accommodate the needs of the new residents. All wooden elements, from the staircase in the entrance to the brise-soleils, as well as their mechanic components, were restored to its original state and became fully functional again.

The house’s structure and enclosing are rigorously modulated and built with pre-fabricated concrete components, some of which were found severely damaged. The roof, for example, was composed of concrete troughs that served as both structure and water-proofing elements, which presented numerous leaking points and high thermal transmittance rates. In order to update it and reach better thermal insulation indexes, it was replaced by an insulated concrete plate separated from the ceiling, recreating the original ventilated space between them. The double-height structure of the veranda’s roof was also covered with concrete slabs, which were replaced with retractable, translucid awnings that allow the area to become completely outdoor and to let sunlight reach the interior of the house more intensively. The pool was returned to its original location along the site’s granite wall, and now integrates the veranda. The house’s HVAC and MPE infrastructure was entirely replaced with new equipment that reduce energy and water consumption.

The total built area of the house (after renovation) is 560 sqm. Its original concrete structure, which was originally covered in wood, is now covered with isostatic grey paint on aluminum sheets. Special wooden and mechanic components of the original project (brisesoleils and maid stairs) have been entirely restored. The entire flooring of the house’s social areas is made of local grey granite, which extends from the interior to all outdoor areas and swimming pool. Intimate areas (bedrooms) are covered in 0.15x2m pieces of ‘cumaru’ wood (local Brazilian tree). The existing concrete roof, made of pre-fabricated concrete panels, was replaced with thermoacoustic insulation to improve waterproofing and thermal performance. Its HVAC system articulates both VRF and conventional split units, respectively, for the social and bedroom areas.