Walk on the wild side

This indoor-outdoor home on a modest site features a linear side garden and reflection pond approach, glulam timber porticos, CLT slabs, exposed concrete, and a rooftop spa

The rear of the indoor-outdoor home is open

Open plan living with the beauty of wood

Dining table, chairs and ceiling all in wood

Master bedroom with glass walls and wood ceiling.

Rear deck punctuated by glulam element. - Walk

Along with wood, glass is another material hero

Rear of home showing garden climbing the boundary

Looking down the garden approach from the rear

Wood tones and natural light bring a relaxed

Living room with nature knocking at the vertically

Master bedroom with glassed in deck. - Walk

Designed by FGMF Arquitetos

From the architects:

Brief – an open house integrated with the garden, featuring ﬂuid and generous spaces.

The description sounds reasonable – if not for the challenge of designing on a plot of only 280m².

Located in São Paulo, in a green neighbourhood, the narrow rectangular lot was used to its full extent.

Linear garden provides side approach to rear of home entry

With the home positioned on the lefthand side of the plot and attached to a neighbouring building, we freed up the right portion to create a linear garden that guides visitors directly to the back of the house, where we concentrated the social areas and a wider garden.

House to the left, garden approach to the

This path runs along a raised walkway, ﬂanked by a recessed garden and reﬂecting pool, giving the sensation that the house ﬂoats alongside the vertical garden that covers the entire right-hand wall.

Glulam timber porticos make wood a presence right from entry

A sequence of timber-structured porticos creates a rhythm along the path, making wood a presence from the moment of entry.

Light and spaced apart, detached from the main volume of the house, the porticos belong both to the house and to the garden, deﬁning the path as a transitional space between indoors and outdoors.

Fernando Forte

These elements are made of glulam (glued-laminated timber) and, as they are exposed to the elements, they are clad with a 'sacriﬁcial' wooden layer.

The porticos are braced with steel rods, allowing the structural solution to become a fundamental part of the architectural language of the house.

The porticos extend over the house and are supported by an exposed concrete wall that marks the boundary with the neighbour on the left.

The glulam elements are complemented by CLT (cross-laminated timber) slabs on the two upper ﬂoors of the house.

Treated to remain exposed, the slabs highlight the construction system in nearly all areas of the home.

Composed of three ﬂoors, the top level houses a leisure area with a spa at treetop height.

Protected from direct sunlight by a metal cobogó (hollowed-out building block used to create permeable walls), this ﬂoor rests on the wooden portico and stands apart from the two ﬂoors below.

In this project, wood was used to emphasise both the lightness of the structure and its beautiful natural colour and texture.