Excerpt: Casa Açucena is a residence designed by the architectural firm TETRO Arquitetura. The project is a response to a sensitive reading of the place. At first contact with this terrain, the need to maintain the natural characteristics is already evident. Looking upwards, from the ground to the canopy of trees, elevated up to fifteen meters above ground level, was decisive for creating the concept.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by Architect] A place immersed in lush Atlantic Rainforest nature. A terrain filled with large leafy trees, foliage, shrubs, birds and wild animals. A challenging topography with a steep slope characteristic of the Nova Lima region in Minas Gerais. This is the place where Casa Açucena is inserted.
The project is a response to a sensitive reading of the place. At first contact with this terrain, the need to maintain the natural characteristics is already evident. Looking upwards, from the ground to the canopy of trees, elevated up to fifteen meters above ground level, was decisive for creating the concept. How to build a place with such steep topography while maintaining its original nature? How to give the residents the daily experience of looking up and seeing the sky through the treetops. These were the questions that guided all design decisions.
The initial understanding that architecture should mold to the terrain and not the other way around was the starting point. The house rises above the ground, and the animal and plant life develop underneath. The program shapes itself by occupying the empty spaces between the trees. No trees are removed. The topography is not changed. Art and Nature in perfect harmony. From this point on, no choice or design decision was made by the taste or will of the architect. Everything is a response and is intended to reinforce a concept.
The house, in its white colour, surprises those who arrive. Its randomly placed black pillars blend in with the trunks. The house seems to float. Its fluid plan, a result of the program’s occupation among the trees, and its openings and folds in the slab generate volumetry to reach the view of the treetops. The architecture is harmoniously inserted next to the natural vegetation but maintains its presence. Surprise and novelty are values inherent to art. Casa Açucena presents itself as a white flower amid nature.
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