Situated in São Paulo, this home by local architects at the Guilherme Torres firm has a dual personality within and without its walls. The ground level of the building is an extremely open indoor/outdoor fusion of recreational space, with plenty of amenities and space to entertain. Ascending the steps to the cantilever-style upper portion of the home, however, entices you into a more personal and private area of the house, where its owners and their children sleep. Each room upstairs has a design that reflects the personality of its occupant, and the entire upper section of the home is architecturally isolated from the hosting space below it as well as from the world beyond.
Throughout the home, fittings are creative and luxurious, with custom furniture, art, and storage from the living room to the master bath. Even the simplest of materials are transformed via design elegance into modern, eye-catching decor pieces. The home itself is an attention-getting architectural design, but it’s the details and layout within that make it truly unique.
Unlike many homes, this example is not limited in design by a single point of entrance. Because of the open-form nature of the ground floor, the home’s garage can be situated on the opposite side of the walkway and the two can still lead directly into the same space behind the wall.
The landscaping of the lot integrates the home into its environment, as well as providing some visual cover for people gathered in the outdoor spaces of the bottom floor.
The house’s structure is based on a reinvention of the traditional theme of placing private space above common areas. The second floor, complete with vision-scattering patterned wood paneling, is the most striking part of the structure visually but is only accessible via one subtle staircase within the home itself.
Behind the streetside wall and plant barriers, a serene wood-floor outdoor space emerges, complete with a pool and park-style trees. This space is designed to host large groups, as well as to provide an island of respite from working life for the home’s owners.
The most visually interesting part of the open space is the large wooden pool deck, with a dark stain. It can’t be practical in terms of upkeep, but it makes an imposing visual statement.
Above the pool area is a wooden deck that could also be used for hosting, especially if a few tables and chairs were put up there. At the moment, however, it’s left empty to emphasize the clean lines of the home’s design from the street.
On one side of the ground floor, underneath one end of the home’s private space, is a combined living room and dining room. This room is kept completely open to the air on any day possible, with a retracting glass wall for its entrance.
Colorful, artistic seating and creative wall materials define the living room, creating a luxurious and exquisite space to stay in. The living room sees the start of an ultramodern shelving system that extends over into the dining room.
The dining room has a more traditional color scheme than the living room, with its most dominant colors being the red of the art on one wall and the gold of its elaborate light fixture.
As it approaches the dining room, the cabinets along the back wall of the room get taller, uniting the two areas while keeping them distinct at the same time.
Even the most meek of materials can be translated into a luxurious and fitting piece of furniture. These cardboard tables don’t seem at all out of place in the hallway, and would fit in nearly anywhere in this high-class home.
One humble plywood stairway around the corner from the open living room leads upstairs, signaling the beginning of a much more personal and private space.
The wood lattice on the exterior of the home isolates homeowners from the attention of a gawking public, but it isn’t actually the structural barrier between the exterior and interior on the upper floor of the home. A buffer zone between the lattice and the hallway is given by glass panels that line the hall. While this may seem like an oddly restrictive design choice, it adds to the intimate atmosphere of the top floor by narrowing the hall and filtering light.
One bedroom of the home is full of soft grays, browns, and other mature tones conducive to rest. This bedroom is the simplest and most serene personal space of the home, with an altogether different mood to the elaborate living room below it.
On the other hand, the two bedrooms of the house meant specifically for children are much more vibrant and playful than the first bedroom. This one is made up in many neon colors, accented by a black background theme.
Multicolored shelving provides useful storage for children’s objects that would otherwise end up strewn over the floor, and is built into the structure of the home to avoid wasting space on floorstanding shelf furniture.
The bed in this room is set inside a wooden cubby surrounded by neon modules on the room’s wall. Looking up from the bed at the wood structure is much more calming to a child than a view of the colors beyond it, allowing for sleep even within this playful space.
The other child’s bedroom has a blue motif, and its storage systems are different from those of the first. The shelves here are all different sizes and forms, instead of a simple grid of squares. Where one element (color) is simplified, another (shape) is brought to the forefront and diversified.
A large open black-and-white room serves as the master bathroom and closet, with the expansive storage section forming a hallway that leads to cleaning areas.
The only splash of color in this room is a pink stool. The space is geometrically reminiscent of the overall shape of the house, with undistracting rectangular shapes arranged neatly and elegantly for maximum utility. It’s cool, clean, and ultra-modern.
Guilherme Torres
