Project: PA House
Conclusion Year: 2016
Built Area: 1200 m²
Location: Curitiba, PR, Brazil
Photography: Denilson Machado – Mca Studio
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About Studio Guilherme Torres
Founded in 2001, Studio Guilherme Torres develops projects in the most diverse areas, from architecture to design. This company is personified in the figure of its founder, a perfectionist. On his left arm, a great tattoo says, through the words extracted from a Daft Punk’s song, “work it, harder, better, faster, make it over”. This unofficial motto describes your ethics and commitment to quality which is readily apparent in your work.
Minimal details and palettes of rich but reserved materials that characterize his work are consistently applied in single-family homes, interior projects, and retail projects Balancing the rigorous aesthetics of architecture, a certain playful lightness can be found in the interior design of your projects.
The crisp shapes and subtle surfaces provide a suitably quiet backdrop to the lively furniture inside, while carefully planned spaces benefit from astute attention to natural light. Suspended volumes and few but notable lines are its trademarks that seek, in his projects, to investigate the limits of materials.
The project consists of a 600 m² house in Curitiba, Paraná. It was formulated on the architect’s first visit to the site: “two perpendicular volumes, of concrete, glass and steel, in the middle of a nature reserve”, pointed out Torres.
One of the main premises was to create open and spacious spaces, surrounded by lush greenery in perfect balance with an intimate atmosphere. To achieve this goal, the residence has several layers revealed as the architecture unfolds. The residence explores the native forest that is integrated to the land through the implantation in “L”, framing the entire landscape.
The wall of the facade in cobogós — hollow masonry typical of contemporary Brazilian architecture — soon presents the texture in the foreground, which merges with the landscape initially settled by the grass. This element allows air circulation and creates games of shadow and light, without necessarily revealing what is in its posterior portion.
The needs program was developed for a couple and their children, and consisted of establishing two livings: one of them acts as a formal lounge and the other, with access to the garage, is dedicated to the family.
While this floor is covered with glass, the upper floor has brises soleil in ribbon, which provide privacy to the four suites without blocking the view of nature. Its slender geometry also elegantly hides the constructions that border the lot. In this way, the house appears to be anchored in a grove.
The architect defines this house in just one word: timeless. The spaces, contrary to what is imagined, have the power to redefine meaning and can be transformed into other environments as the needs and lives of those who live there change.
Depending on the incidence of light, the shadows created by the concrete structures on the wood create a unique effect, almost a “wabi-sabi” (the beauty of imperfection, according to Japanese philosophy). This effect was explored in the choice of all materials: in the marble flooring and in the wood covering the walls and ceiling. The most important thing was to bring the natural elements to their most raw essence, awakening cozy feelings that fit perfectly with the city’s climate — particularly colder than the typical tropical climate of the country.
Despite the apparent simplicity of its geometry and the sparse number of materials, its conception awakens almost lyrical emotions and in perfect counterpoint with the harmony of the surrounding nature.