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Architects: Arquea Arquitetos
- Area: 250 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:Federico Cairoli
Text description provided by the architects. Located in a residential condominium of the metropolitan region of Curitiba, Brazil, the Countyard House of approximately 250 square meters was born of the premise of creating an integrated and legible house. The terrain at the top of a hill allowed us to explore the view even in a condominium where the houses are relatively close, and the size of the site amplitude set the entire program on a single floor.
The creation of this single floor was of fundamental importance to fulfill the basic premise. The private area of the house is set at the end of the site to exploited maximum north insolation, and the rooms have the privacy preserved. In the front part of the land, next to the street, is the service sector linked to the intimate we have the social.
Garage and laundry facilities are on the facade of the house. The lighting and ventilation of the service area occur through an atrium that divides laundry and kitchen with a small garden. Those who arrive at the house are invited to enter through a large concrete ramp and two ipe trees, one purple and one yellow, guide the pedestrian access.
From the entrance hall, it is possible to quickly understand the space since the whole house is drawn around a central square, the courtyard. To the left, the grill room turns to this courtyard and to the right, we have the living room and dining room, integrated into the kitchen. Large windows open onto this square turning making the room a veranda and the patio into a large outdoor room. Two guest bedrooms and the master suite are between a private living room, which as well as the bedrooms opens onto a pine tree forest in the background. A second atrium leads to the bathroom of the main suite, a garden that illuminates and ventilates the room.
Through the small office also located in the private part of the house, a vertical wooden brise soleil gives privacy without block the view to the garden. In the middle of the courtyard, an outdoor fireplace invites everyone to gather around the fire.
The concern with sustainability is present in the house plan, form, and materials. The design in "C" form deployment significantly increases sun incidence since we have more rooms warmed and illuminated by the sun, in this way we have a passive solar house. Some roof windows increase natural light in bathrooms and kitchens, avoiding the need for artificial lighting. Built with bricks produced by local potteries, we reduced carbon footprints and showed in the facade all the effort employed in the construction of the building. All rainwater that falls on the roofs is collected and also reused in the house.
The courtyard house was designed as the home of the own architect allowed more experimentation of layout and materials, almost in parallel to the experimental home of Muuratsalo of Alvar Aalto. The admiration for the work of the Finnish architect is seen in the inspiration of volumetry and the sum of small gestures that create a genuinely hospitable architecture.
