Project: House 13
Architects: Atria Arquitetos
Location: Brasilia, Brazil
Area: 6,996 sf
Photographs by: Edgar Cezar
House 13 by Atria Arquitetos
Atria Arquitetos has completed the design of House 13 in Brasilia, Brazil. This contemporary family residence offers a fair bit of living space with its 7,000 square foot layout. The home also features an extensive landscape design that is strongly connected to the indoors through many large openings that also serve to bring some natural light inside.
The “Casa 13” is a family residence that points out the contrast among the simplicity of the shapes and the richness of the spaces and materials. The architectural design approach searches for privacy to the intimate areas of the house, as well as full integration of internal social areas, leisure spaces in the outside and the garden itself. The building has a steel concrete structure, two stories, and is located in a residential neighborhood in Brasília. The ground floor has differences in level that accommodate the house to the terrain’s natural slope.
From the street view, there are two perpendicularly overlaid volumes. What seems to be a blind gable covered by wood is actually a panel that disguises the window’s shutters. The metallic front gate is in a backward plan giving the impression that the upper volume floats in the air. The side façade is composed by a big blind gable that directs the pedestrian regard to the backyard, and the closure of the living room in glazed panels. From the back, the wooden floor continues up to the wall playing the role of bringing to the floor the volume that floats over the glazing.
The internal spaces are divided among intimate spaces, social spaces and service spaces. They are organized in a simple and functional way, and also in a peripheral distribution in order to liberate the core of the house to the double-height entrance hall. Intimate spaces are on the first floor (bedrooms and bathrooms); social and service spaces are on the ground floor (living room, dining room, office, kitchen, laundry, garage) . The main access is through the side of the house, by an enormous wooden pivoting door that leads to the core of the house, a double height space naturally lightened by a pergola with glazed roof. This space stands out for its monumentality and for the contrast of rough materials (cement floor)and noble materials (travertine marble panel).
