7 Courtyards House

Those who come from the sea hardly notice the volume of the 7 Courtyards House at the foot of the mountain. The thin slab that divides the green from the sand shelters an almost invisible house on the horizon, dissolved in the landscape. The neighborhood of the plot, located inside a condominium in Mangaratiba, Rio de Janeiro, urged the architecture to propose a counterpoint: a house on a human scale, discreet, simple and precise. The house is divided into two volumes, one dedicated to five master suites, each with its own inner courtyard, and the service quarters. The other volume opens towards the sea, and is dedicated to the social areas, with a living room integrated with the dining room, a TV room and a kitchen. Between the volumes, a spacious green patio - the heart of the house - is crossed uncovered, barefoot in the grass. The tactility and rusticity were premises for the choice of materials. Under the thin concrete roof slab, two raw brick walls laterally delimit the house. Among them, the enclosed programs are placed in boxes, enveloped by an eucalyptus shutter, that open as doors and also allow, when closed, the filtered passage of natural light. The 7 Courtyards House has a clean and neat design, but it reserves in its materiality a space to imperfection. It is a house where you seek an experience connected to the ground and the horizon, letting yourself be guided by the sound of the sea.