Project: Pratical House
Architects: Estúdio Zargos
Location: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Area: 6,565 sf
Year: 2019
Photographs by: Jomar Bragança
Pratical House by Estúdio Zargos
Practical House, designed by Estúdio Zargos in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, embodies simplicity, coherence, and integration with its natural surroundings. Located at the end of a dead-end street surrounded by mountains, the design maintains a concise dynamic in both materiality and function. The two-floor structure harmoniously fits into the existing terrain, with the first floor featuring access, a patio with landscaping, and multi-functional space. The second floor, elevated above surrounding buildings, houses essential activities and living spaces, providing unique views of the city.
Concise, cohesive, and coherent: these are the adjectives that synthesize the essence of Casa Prática. At the end of a dead-end street, surrounded by mountains and a green area, the building, located in Belo Horizonte, has a simplifying dynamic, both in terms of materiality and use.
Starting from an existing terrain, the project’s key challenge was to elaborate the insertion of a new house that could dialogue with the logic already established by the cuts, props, and plateaus designed to receive another project. Thus, the house was organized on two floors, as follows:
The first floor inserted a little above the average elevation of the surrounding buildings contains the access, with stairs, a ramp and hall, and a large patio that fulfills the role of parking and multipurpose space, surrounded by expressive landscaping;
On the second floor, most of the environments and fundamental activities of the house are located, and organized in a very integrated way, including with the landscape of the region, surrounded by an aura of harmony between nature and urban. Therefore, in addition to the proposed landscaping and the surrounding nature, it has been conceived as a space that articulates itself as a large balcony, suggesting the user a synesthesia between being and space.
Its position high up in a valley provides unique views of the city. The use of materials in their pure forms provides a simple, living, and powerful architecture.
This simultaneous dialog between urban and nature builds a dualistic atmosphere, in which the landscape is the protagonist. From this point of view, it`s possible to enjoy the tranquility of the bedroom embraced by the greenery while listening to the wind touching the leaf sound, as well as open up yourself to the street through the balcony, glimpsing the city lights on the horizon.
