House in the Hills / Architectare

Architects: Architectare
Location: Itaipava – Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Project Architects: Flavia Quintanilha e Rodrigo Fernandes
Area: 704 sqm
Photographs: Leonardo Finotti

Lightning: RBF arquitetura de iluminação
Construction: K2 Engenharia
Structural Project: MPompei Engenharia
Site Area: 2790 m²

From the architect. Despite being in a proportionately large lot, the building has its shape defined by the small triangle of its buildable area on the entrance of the lot, resulting from enforcement of the condominium and local legislation. The whole building area is embedded in this triangle, with the exception of the deck, which was designed as permeable construction, as allowed. Those restrictions forced the house to be very exposed to the street and that was taken as a design proposition.

The façade towards the street was designed to give the impression that it is all closed, with exception of the library and some small openings on the first floor. The graphic texture of this façade represents the integration of the architecture with the land. From the soil, a well-defined form arises, with organic texture, made with rocks gathered in the place. On this strong base, another volume is lightly settled.

This volume contains the rooms and interacts with the street by means of theirs big sliding panels made of aluminum. This very rational texture is interrupted by the library bookshelf, which is dominated by the disordered timber wood graphism working as a moucharebiya.

The façade towards the inside of the land is made of sliding glass panels, receiving direct sun during the winter afternoon, warming the house for the night. and increasing the integration between the interior and the nature outside. Those glass panels provide the necessary input of light during the day.

To increase the interior sun light, a skylight above the stairs was designed. At night, the lighting design benefits from the material´s textures to preserve the warm atmosphere. The entire 1st floor is designed to ensure full interaction among the different uses and spaces of the house. For this, the sliding glass panels can be completely open; transforming the living room into a veranda and the deck becomes an extension of the internal space, annulling the barriers between the swimming pool and outside kitchen.

The 2nd floor is more private and all the bedrooms turn to the mezzanine where the library is, from which you can see the first floor without being too exposed.