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1. At sunset 5472 px 3648 px 8 MB A3 print |
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2. East façade 5253 px 3502 px 6 MB A4 print |
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3. Swimming pool III 5472 px 3648 px 8 MB A3 print |
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4. South façade in twilight 3000 px 2000 px 3 MB Print - Low res only |
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5. Swimming pool I 5472 px 3648 px 8 MB A3 print |
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6. Swimming pool II 5419 px 3612 px 12 MB A3 print |
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7. Striated ceiling 3648 px 5472 px 10 MB A3 print |
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8. Striated façade 853 px 640 px 412 KB Print - Low res only |
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9. Yellow living room from above 5472 px 3648 px 10 MB A3 print |
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10. The bedroom 5472 px 3648 px 9 MB A3 print |
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11. Stairs I 3648 px 5472 px 8 MB A3 print |
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12. The house amid the Cerrado landscape 5470 px 3647 px 11 MB A3 print |
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13. The house amid the Cerrado landscape 5472 px 3648 px 12 MB A3 print |
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14. The house amid the Cerrado landscape 5472 px 3648 px 12 MB A3 print |
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15. Open louvres at sunset 5472 px 3648 px 12 MB A3 print |
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16. North façade 5472 px 3648 px 10 MB A3 print |
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17. South façade 5311 px 3541 px 12 MB A3 print |
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18. South façade detail 5472 px 3648 px 12 MB A3 print |
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19. Yellow living room at night 3000 px 2000 px 4 MB Print - Low res only |
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20. The log dining table 5141 px 3427 px 9 MB A4 print |
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21. The red restroom 5472 px 3648 px 7 MB A3 print |
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22. A sequence of closed louvres 3672 px 4896 px 5 MB A4 print |
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23. Laundry I 3648 px 2736 px 1 MB A4 print |
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24. Laundry II 3648 px 2736 px 2 MB A4 print |
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25. Inside the pool 15793 px 3080 px 22 MB A4 print |
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26. An invite 4896 px 3672 px 7 MB A4 print |
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27. Situation 7017 px 4963 px 2 MB A3 print |
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28. Plan - 1st floor 7017 px 4963 px 2 MB A3 print |
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29. Plan - 2nd floor 7017 px 4963 px 2 MB A3 print |
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30. Plan - roof 7017 px 4963 px 2 MB A3 print |
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31. General section 4819 px 1701 px 1 MB Print - Low res only |
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32. Sections 7017 px 4963 px 2 MB A3 print |
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33. Under construction III 3648 px 2736 px 4 MB A4 print |
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34. Under construction IV 3648 px 2736 px 3 MB A4 print |
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35. Under construction V 3648 px 2736 px 3 MB A4 print |
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36. Under construction VII 900 px 400 px 315 KB Print - Low res only |
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37. Under construction VI 3648 px 2736 px 3 MB A4 print |
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38. Under construction I 2592 px 1944 px 1 MB Print - Low res only |
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39. Under construction II 2592 px 1944 px 2 MB Print - Low res only |
The House
The Cerrado House was built at the foothills of the Sierra da Moeda, a mountain range in the state of Minas Gerais. The three-bedroom house has a rooftop pool and a wide staircase that leads to the rooftop terrace. The rooms are right under the swimming pool and have views of the sierra, the Cerrado and its twisted trees. Louvers on the northern and western faces protect against the inclement sun.
The play between function and form here is spontaneous and undogmatic: the ramps and stairs of the swimming pool are stamped onto the façades and shape the internal space. The employment of the programmatic source is made directly manifest: it is a strategy that explores the programme/form relationship as an inevitable correspondence.
Performance Description
Seeking the plasticity of basic architectural elements, the project also exalts this underestimated and threatened biome: the Cerrado. There is no landscape design: the house sits on natural terrain, whose immensity and vistas are best seen from the pool terrace.
The Context
The Cerrado is one of the country’s seven biomes and covers an area of 1.5 million km². It holds about a third of all Brazilian biodiversity, 5% of the world’s flora and fauna, and is home to the headwaters of the three largest hydrographic basins in the country (Amazon, São Francisco, and Paraná/Paraguay). It has a unique flora and stands out for its generously-spaced trees and low-slung brushwood, blending into a South-American variation on the African savannah and the European steppe. Given its ecological, geopolitical and cultural specificities, the Cerrado is considered the biome of national integration.
The soils of the Cerrado were once regarded as too acidic to farm. But since agronomists began applying industrial quantities of lime in the 1980s, these soils have been transformed. The Cerrado now produces 70% of Brazil’s agricultural output.
In recent years, the rate of ecological destruction of the Cerrado has been twice that of the Amazon, and while the majority of the Amazon rainforest still survives, more than 60% of the Cerrado’s former 200 million hectares have disappeared under the plough, and most of that within the last two decades alone. It has been a black hole for conservation: only 2% of the ecosystem is protected. However, Brazilian agriculturalists and ministers still talk as if it had no conservation value at all.
Specification
Authors: Vazio S/A - Carlos M Teixeira, Leonardo Rodrigues (collab. arch.), Daila Araújo (collab. arch.), Frederico Almeida (collab. arch.)
Project: 2013
Construction: 2014-2015
Total area: 320 m²
Closed area: 142m²
Site: 3 ha.
Location: Moeda, Brazil
Architectural design: Vazio S/A
Structural design: RAD
Electrical design / Plumbing: Matheus Elias
Construction: Nova Engenharia
Main Suppliers :
Frames aluminum louvers: JJ Esquadrias
Marble and granite: Arq Pedras
Metals: Docol
Crockery: Celite
Fixtures: Templuz
Ceramics: Vitrale
Furniture: Vazio S/A
Pool: Sol e Ar
Project size | 142 m2 |
Site size | 30000 m2 |
Completion date | 2015 |
Building levels | 2 |
Daila Coutinho | Architect | |
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Carlos M Teixeira | Principal Architect |
Leonardo Rodrigues | Architect | |
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Vazio S/A | Architects |