Arquitetura & Construção featured this house by Chicô Gouvêa quite some time ago. It's got a great blend of Japanese and Brazilian about it and the layout and style, although perhaps not that "modern", really appeal.
Formed of two wings, separated by a reflecting pond, the house provides privacy, with the bedrooms set apart in the smaller of the two structures. Two beds down, and a master up top with a wrap around balcony and walk in wardrobe through to the bathroom.
Across the courtyard is the larger kitchen dining studio block. I think it's nice that the studio is situated above the living area, as it gives you the feeling of going off to work as you head across the courtyard from the bedroom. It also gives space for extra guests and has fantastic views down the valley no doubt.
I'm also hooked on the ORANGE feature wall and rotating TV panel, which allows you to watch from bed or the couch. I'm not sure if I'd sleep with those colours but perhaps in the living room.
One change I might make would be to add a glass cover to the path between the two wings in case it's raining when you head across for a midnight snack.
Text from Arquitetura Construção
Living in São Conrado, in the southern zone of Rio, since she married more than 30 years ago the artist Renata Cazzani commuted daily to her studio in Pedra da Gávea. After three years, tired of the commute and looking a more comfortable space to work, she found the perfect solution in an old house located on a no exit street in her neibourhood. "The land was excellent, ample and almost all flat but the house was delapitated and needed a lot of work", she remembers. Thus the purchase was made, with friend and architect Chicô Gouvêa invited to run the project.
"Soon we saw that the best option was to demolish everything and to start on a new idea, a mixture of studio and house, in two wings to give to greater privacy", acounts Chicô. The grafism present in the art of Renata inspired Chicô to draw a construction of straight lines, with an East Asian base and influences of Brazilian architecture - an example is the colonial roofing tiles. "The interior and the forms are simple, with very little mixture of materials", points out Chicô.
Marshy land. As the land is next to a mountain, it has a high water table and the land is always wet. To fix the problem, Wilson Diniz, architect of the CMN Engineering, opted to dig down for the foundations, that are excavated and concreted in place. "With a machine, we made 25 holes of 25 m in depth in the land and inserted steel and concrete. Thus, the structure was secured.", points out Wilson. Later, peripherial draining was added. Part of the water flows off directly to stormwater drains and part is collected in a tank situated under of the house for the caretaker, being reused in the irrigation system of the garden.
Currently, besides functioning as a studio for Renata, the house is a comfortable area of leisure for the extended family, who congregate with friends in the weekends taking advantage of the swimming pool, sauna and a delicious meal made in the kiosk. In this independent environment, of 60 m2, a complete gourmet kitchen was installed, with churrasqueira (BBQ) and pizza oven. "As soon as my children marry, I intend to move here with my husband. The rooms are all set up and the structure functions very well. Everything is practical and easy to clean. I hope that inside of two years we can realise this dream ", bets Renata. Enamored with the results of the project, Renata says that, here they have a farmhouse in the middle of the city, complete with garden, lake and healthful living with all the animals that they adore. "I like fish, birds and dogs and I can have all of them here, without issues. In the studio, the work flows and there's a wonderful view. Really, I think that we've constructed a small paradise fit for our needs." she reflects.
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