Today we present a house by Brazilian architect Carla Juaçaba, winner of ArcVision - Women and Architecture. You can find below the link to her amazing Umanidade2012 pavilion, designed together with artist Bia Lessa for Río +20, United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Memory of project

A house made for the granddaughter of great architect Sergio Bernardes and a Colombian artist was a challenge. At first they wanted the house to have the characteristics of Lota House made by her grandfather in 1950, from which we kept some materials such as the ceiling. The development of the project was very interactive.

The house divides the field into two, the skylight (24m x 0.60 m) is a feature that accentuates that division. This implementation was the beginning of the project. The main goal was to preserve the centenary trees. 

The vision goes beyond the house, the walls are made of glass. The parallel solid walls don't interrupt the vision. The  living room is in the center, the rooms at the ends. The center of the house is a terrace when open. Brazilian homes all have a terrace as the most important place for socializing, in this case it is already one. The roof, designed 1.5 m beyond the glass walls protects the main facades. What brings intimacy to that glass house is the immersion in nature. The light ray imprints on the parallel walls as the day goes on.

The steel structure was built in 15 days. The cover is made of sandwich zinc-aluminum tiles and was placed in one day.

The topography of the region, below the mountain and subject to flooding, was the reason for the suspension of the floor at 80cm.

The project is a clear reference to Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe with its calm presence in a site that should have remained untouched.

Text.- Carla Juaçaba

CREDITS.-

Architect.- Carla Juaçaba.
Trainees.- Joana Ramalhete, Nina Lucena.
Collaborators.- Pirajá dos Anjós (Engineer), D´angeli serviços de engenharia (Structures), Simon Merheb (Systems), Joana Marcier (Lighting).
Lot area.- 1.153 m².
Built area.- 140 m².
Construction period.- 2005–2007.
Location.- Itanhangá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Carla Juaçaba. Born in 1976, since 2000, she developed her independent practice of architecture and research based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her office is currently engaged in both public and private projects, focusing on housing and cultural programs.

Since undergraduate student she worked with the architect Gisela Magalhães of the Niemeyer’s generation, mostly in the area of exhibitions related to the Brazilian native arts and historical museums.

During her first year after college (2000) she worked jointly with another architect Mario Fraga on the project named “Atelier House”. Following that, a series of projects have been conceived such as the “Rio Bonito house” (2005), the “Varanda House”(2007), the “Minimum House”(2008),“Santa Teresa House” in its final stage (2012), and a couple of exhibition design. Current works includes the ephemeral pavilion conceived with the senior scenographer and theather director Bia Lessa, “Humanidade2012” for Rio+20, the recent international meeting held in Rio de Janeiro. And also two houses on the outskirts of Rio.

Carla Juaçaba is constantly a part of the academic and teaching realms, as well as research studies, lectures, biennales, exhibitions and recently was the Jury at BIAU Bienal Ibero Americana in Madrid (2012). She is currently teaching at FAU-PUC RJ Pontifícia Universidade Católica.

Her work is focused on an intrinsic issue of the discipline: the poetics of tectonics, and its expressive potentiality.

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