Brazilian (White) Home Overcomes The Grunge
SATORI & SCOUT absolutely love white and this small home found in Brazil is perfect for that sun-kissed, super-hot kind of day...until you see it's sad-story neighbourhood. A change was needed. By the way, hows your sunny May / Summer going? Designed by Bloco Arquitetos, this home is very modestly called 711H, and can be found in an area of town that was originally earmarked for food production yet converted to houses to cater for the city's housing crisis.
Accordingly, many of the local housing units face out onto all sorts of nasties such as a service alleyway and in turn, make any form of garden(s) dangerous and unpleasant. In an attempt to reverse this and make good out of a bad situation, 711H represents what Brazil really could be, if they put their mind to it. Restoring this home's front yard into a garden, two parallel pairs of metallic screens encase the space to allow privacy and access simultaneously, and as the architects explain, "...it acknowledges the present reality, and its official and unofficial rules of occupation, and aims to recover the activation of the green strip that is adjacent to the house." A house that is also perfect white against the other home's run-down brick/metallic/tile colourways, its mono-pitched roof is a third point of difference in the neighbourhood - both of the home's neighbours' buildings are different heights and this roof perfectly connects the roofscapes to one another, a subtle detail.
As Bloco Arquitetos continues, "...the form of the roof is generated by an imaginary line connecting the highest point that is officially allowed for the constructions in the neighbourhood to the slightly sloped roof of the construction on the other side." Complete inside with narrow spaces - kitchen, living and dining room downstairs - the home's interior boasts laminated steel beams and columns, as well as exposed concrete block walls, to all-together provide a sense of permanence within a neighbourhood of 'temporary homes'. Good design needn't cost the earth, just a good sense of purpose. Discover more about the architects and this design online at: Bloco.arq.br