From the architect: The conceptual goal of this project was to develop a two-story house that visually appeared to be a one-story structure. For this, we raised the main ground level of the house by 1.5 meter, creating a lower, half buried floor, but still receiving natural lighting and ventilation. We located all the service and leisure areas, such as a home theater, exercise room and sauna, on this floor.
The level for the social and private areas was distributed in two similar rectangular volumes. These volumes were laid out in a parallel, although shifted, manner. The blocks were linked by a covering that also formed the overhang, generating a circulation space that, while closed, appears to be external. The living room comes to touch the ground level and, therefore, has a higher ceiling. Next to the street, the construction detaches from the ground, since there is no lower floor at this point.
Despite the mandatory use of a sloping roof and ceramic roofing tiles, the house’s covering appears to be flat, since from the outside all that can be seen is the wooden overhang and glass. The very slight slope we created is only visible from the inside. The format of the triangular pool was determined by the limits of the construction itself.
Structurally, we used reinforced concrete for the foundations and the half-buried floor, columns and metallic beams for the main floor and a wooden structure for the roof. The main finishing materials are charred wood and Travertine marble.
Project Details:
Location: Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Area: 470 sqm
Architects: Jacobsen Arquitetura – Paulo Jacobsen and Bernardo Jacobsen
Design Team: Edgar Murata, Jaime Cunha Jr, Christian Rojas, Veridiana Ruzzante
Photographs: Pedro Kok
