I’m not kidding. I’ve never been a fan of concrete interiors. I’ve never been a fan of concrete exteriors. I’m not into brutalist architecture. I find it all too… brutal.

Which makes this particular house by Obra Arquitetos an interior design marvel because most of the interior walls and ceiling is the bare concrete that LOOKS GOOD; LOOKS AMAZING. What can I say other than I’m now a fan of concrete interior design when it’s done well. This is a perfect example of interior design that takes concrete interiors to the next level.

About this house

Architects: Obra Arquitetos
Area: 4090 ft²
Year: 2019
Photographs: Nelson Kon, Pedro Mascaro
Lead Architects: João Paulo Daolio, Thiago Natal Duarte
Engineering: Truzzi Engenharia
Landscaping: Panorama Paisagismo
Lighting: Castilha Iluminação
Interiors: Juliana Camargo
City: São José dos Campos
Country: Brazil

Photo tour of this concrete interior house

Right off the bat you see the entire flat roof is concrete.

The house site has a very steep slope. — I love this photo of this house getting a peek into multiple rooms – you can see all the concrete throughout.

The living and dining openly open to the outside. — Such a great patio which meanders around the house with great views.

The kitchen, living and leisure spaces without creating very rigid barriers between environments. — Now you definitely can see the interior concrete wall. It’s striking IMO.

The bedroom located in the downstairs. — Concrete walls in the master bedroom.

An elegant bathroom located in the downstairs. — Interestingly, the master bathroom went all refined with marble.

The house was all constructed of cast-in-place reinforced concrete.

The house surrounded by vegetation and with an intense relationship between the interior and exterior space.

The pool area. — I love this pool. It’s like a huge concrete trough with a view jutting off the patio.

An aerial view of the house in a very steep slope. — Aerial view of this incredible concrete home in Brazil.

The project of the house sought to make the most of the relationship with the site, surrounded by vegetation and with an intense relationship between the interior and exterior space.

Thus, the house was deployed in the center of the lot and distributed on two levels. At the top, a winding slab creates spaces and houses the service, garage and collective use programs, all openly open to the outside.

The design of the slab and some structural walls characterize the kitchen, living and leisure spaces without creating very rigid barriers between environments so that users can enjoy freedom, amplitude and great interaction between environments and programs of the house.

The most intimate level, where a living space and four bedrooms are housed, is designed downstairs.

Taking advantage of the slope of the land, its roof serves as a floor to a flat square upstairs and leaning against a retainer on one side, allows the opening and direct connection of rooms with a garden and a lake pond on the other.

The lake was built so that, besides its beauty, it could serve as a reservoir for the irrigation of the garden, taking advantage of the rainwater and favoring the drainage of the land.

The house was all constructed of cast-in-place reinforced concrete, exploiting the plastic possibilities of the material mainly on the upstairs roof slab and considering the good technical performance when we created backboards and waterproofing roof structures for the volume of the rooms.