There is a small valley amid a lush virgin forest near Sao Paulo, Brazil, where there is a perfect gap in the trees and an open expanse of hill and grass surrounded by auracaria pines and protected from the winds. It was in this valley that architects Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferraz (FGMF Arquitetos) were commissioned to build a house close to the forest, where a natural web of footpaths crosses and enters the nearby forest. The valley is cradled among hills and outcrops that command a grand view of the surrounding forest.

Very important questions dictated the design of the project: the requirement for a single storey house with a view to establishing a direct relationship with the ground and nature, hence the need to maintain privacy between family members, although the principal plan of the residence must be that of a single structure. Another factor that was considered was the high humidity of the region, which would suggest a house elevated from the ground.

The steel beams create empty spaces that reveal the garden on the grid.

A structural wooden grid, with modules measuring 5.5 x 5.5 x 3 m is suspended on this nucleus of means of access connecting the existing paths and creating new ones. Moreover, the bridge structure is crossed in three ways: above (by the roof garden which is a continuation of the land, below (through a garden with a water mirror and natural stones), and through the middle of the house (via a covered outside walkway). This grid has modules that are now occupied by enclosed area, which are now totally empty, enabling trees in the lower garden to cross the structure.

In the hall, the exposed steel beams, walls and glass skylight, allowing the natural light to penetrate the amience.

The plan contained in the grid consists of a nucleus with service and social areas, a guestroom and the owner’s apartment, and three isolated modules containing two rooms for the children. Between them, empty modules highlight the structural continuity and enhance the spaces through which the garden is observed. This interplay of full and empty spaces allows a fragmented organization of the plan so as to respect the privacy of the users, whilst at the same time enabling the whole to be regarded as a cohesive unit.

The residential modules and gaps create interplay of filled and empty spaces that maintain the privacy of the residents.

Suspended above the valley and buried in the hills, the house merges into the land and the land into the house to form a new landscape. The built space, both interior and exterior, enables the rocks and garden on the grid, the virgin forest, the surrounding trees and the rock supports, where the house descends, to be seen.

To read much more detail on this house, see plans and view more photographs, visit Arcelor Mittal's Constructalia website.

The two independant modules at dusk.

Project Summary

Architect	Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferraz - FGMF Arquitetos: (Fernando Forte, Lourenço Gimenes and Rodrigo Marcondes Ferraz
Engineering Firm	Civil: Tecnocasa Construções, Wooden structure: Orbital, Metal structure: MCG Estruturas
Contractor	Structure: Yopanan Rebello Site Management: Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferraz Arquitetos
Photographer	Alexandre Schneider
Project location	São Francisco Xavier,São Paulo
Country	Brasil
Climate	Sub-tropical
Housing Type	Single family

The lighting of the garden and the modules highlights the house suspended on the irregular land.