less fragmented living

The proposal to renovate the original small and old house at Rua de Ceuta, Brazil, was replaced by the desire to recognise family life in a less fragmented way, without individualised rooms and conventional arrangement of a home. The ancient design atmosphere was largely maintained by creating an open courtyard inside the central area. Towards it, the totality of the domestic environments now is turned, benefited by luminosity that takes volume and crosses the geometrical skin glass facade. This courtyard, even internanally allows the house enjoy outside life, in a spiral walkway that starts from the social entrance, runs through the void inside and outside and ends on the roof, also a family living area.
Designed by ARQLAB, from the entrance one can see the internal patio, integrated with the garage via a skin of glass. In it, two opaque surfaces covered in red painting – the closing of the service dependency, on one side, and one of the boundaries, on the other – reinforce the perspective directing the point of view towards the centre, from which, in turn, is possible to see to the bottom of the terrain.
The house general expression is intended to be concise – white walls, wooden floors and doors and all the black frames add up to the internal colours of the house – with abundant light and transparency, incident throughout the courtyard, being the protagonists.