House at Rua Alabarda / Affonso Risi

Architects: Affonso Risi Architect
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Collaborators: William T.S.Miyagui, Frederico Sabella & Lucas Bittar
Constructed Area: 281 sqm
Photographs: Paulo Risi

Urban house with 281 m² (3 023 ft ²) in an upward sloping ground, narrow (9,00 m/ 32,47 ft) and long (50,00 m/164 ft). In the ground floor, 1 meter (3,23 ft) higher than the street, are access, garage, studio and working areas. Also in this level is a little pool with carps, on which grows a flight of stairs in reinforced concrete, conducting to the upper level, with all the house accommodations: access gallery, rooms, kitchen, verandas, family room, office, 3 bed rooms and bathrooms. The office and the third bedroom open to the upper garden in the end of the ground. There’s a solarium over the room and kitchen, with a wooden deck, reached by the continuation of the stairs.

To diminish the strong predominance of the longitudinal over the transversal direction a void was designed, where are the carp pool and stairs, separating the building in two bodies. The volume with bedrooms (upstairs) and studio (downstairs) was painted in red. Other external walls are white. The purpose was to visually enlarge the house and, at same time, to harmonically insert it in the ground.

All measures are controlled by the Golden Section and the entire plan looks for fluidity and spacial continuity.