CASA MIRANTE DO HORTO

The design of the residence came from a basic premise:
maximum use of land for a huge program. Thus, the
strategy was to locate specific areas and vertical circulation
in a way that the rest of spaces enjoy extreme flexibility and
a wide visual range, taking profit of the structure and
volume.

The house seems to hover over the street level. The
structure is the protagonist. A container rests on two yellow
steel beams. This prismatic volume contains the program of
the residence on two floors plus a roof garden, while the
service and the garage are four feet below street level.

The container openings are extremely flexible in the front
and back facades, while quite tenuous on the side walls. It
is a consequence of the immediate surroundings because
the common practice of the neighbors is constructing on the
border of their private grounds. Thus, the program is
located in the perimeter side providing a more flexible
interior space and visual communication in height.

Connecting the house from top to bottom, the right wall next
to the staircase inside the house offers vertical connections
to the exchange of fluids between the four height levels,
while providing space for a different event in each. On the
garage floor, superior and top terrace, it generates the
studio, office and support respectively, while in the main
floor a large aquarium turns that wall in a prism.

The house was designed by a succession of free horizontal
slabs with strategic holes. In these 8×11 meters plans,
these holes allow vertical circulation and the entry of zenith
light.

Besides being a viewpoint to the city, the roof garden
contributes to the sustainability of the residence because it
helps cooling the area immediately below, the dorms.

Sculptural elements emerge from this observation platform
disrupting the order, contrasting in chromaticism and
formality.