Project: Café House
Architects: TETRO Arquitetura
Location: Brazil
Area: 2,766 sf
Year: 2023
Photographs by: Luisa Lage
Café House by TETRO Arquitetura
Café House, nestled in the heart of Brazil’s cerrado, reflects the essence of its surroundings. TETRO Arquitetura drew inspiration from the region’s rural landscape, characterized by red earth and twisted tree trunks.
Rooted in a profound understanding of local culture and the inhabitants’ love for coffee, the design concept embodies the characteristics of this cherished beverage. Thick pigmented concrete walls symbolize the earth, while the thin, white, and gracefully curved slabs, seemingly floating above, represent the air.
Divided into social and intimate blocks, the house maintains a poetic connection with the landscape, with untouched terrain, preserved trees, and a stepped garden.
Café House is a testament to how architecture, through symbolic language, can emotionally bind residents to their living space, celebrating local culture and context.
Café House is located in the middle of the cerrado, in the interior of Brazil. A place with a rural landscape, where the image of red earth and twisted tree trunks predominates. Whereas in all of Brazil’s territory, coffee is an invitation to a long conversation.
Thinking about an architecture that interprets the context in which it is inserted, making a sensitive reading about the place, the culture and the people who will inhabit the space can be the best source of inspiration for the creation of design concepts. The design for this house sought an understanding and connection between the place and the residents, their habits, and interests. In this sense, understanding how much coffee is an important drink for future residents, we raised the following question: How to make a project that represents in its concepts, poetically and subjectively, the characteristics of coffee?
Seeking references in the drink itself. The quality of coffee is greatly impacted by the characteristics of the land and climate where it is grown. In addition, the drink is perhaps the one most related to the air, being recognized by its aroma. In this sense, earth and air were great inspirations. Weight and lightness. Thus, the materialization of this concept took place through the creation of two main elements that represent this contrast. The thick pigmented concrete side walls refer to the earth and the two thin, white, and curved slabs that “float” over the house refer to the air. They are like two sheets of paper resting on the walls that seem to sprout from the ground.
The house’s program was divided into two blocks under the curved slabs: the social and the intimate. To circulate between one block and another, a corridor was created between two earthen walls. It is the preparation to transit between the two distinct atmospheres.
The house, while establishing a connection with the residents, was a response to reading about the place. The earth walls guide the views. The terrain remains untouched and the topography remains the same. The trees were not cut down and now establish new relationships with the built volumes. They were implanted in the original dimensions of the land and between them, a stepped garden was developed.
The project sought to understand how architecture can, through poetic language, emotionally connect residents to the house and create symbols that refer to the culture of the place or the people who will inhabit the space.
