- Project: House 6
- Architect: Studio MK27
- Location: Brazil, Sao Paulo
- Year: 2010
- Area: 890 m2
- Photography: Pedro Kok
Designed by the internationally acclaimed Studio MK27, House 6 is a 9,579 sq ft residence in São Paulo that redefines the role of the veranda in Brazilian domestic life. Known for their minimalist yet warm modernist approach, Studio MK27 has produced landmarks such as the Jungle House in Guarujá and the Osler House in Brasília. With House 6, the architects once again explore the boundary between interior and exterior, crafting a home where the veranda becomes the social and architectural heart.
The Client Brief: A House for Social Life
The design of House 6 began with a very specific client request: a covered external living space that could serve as the central gathering area for family and friends. In Brazil’s tropical climate, where outdoor living is part of cultural tradition, this request resonates with a long lineage of architectural solutions—most notably the veranda, which has been central to Brazilian houses since colonial times.
Yet instead of merely repeating tradition, Studio MK27 reimagined the veranda as a contemporary spatial concept, transforming it into the structural and symbolic anchor of the home.
Reinterpreting the Veranda
In traditional Brazilian homes, the veranda typically runs longitudinally along the front of the house. At House 6, however, it is placed perpendicular to the living room, creating a cross-shaped organization.
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Pilotis replace pillars: Rather than using wooden posts and clay tiles, the veranda is defined by slender pilotis supporting modern flat slabs.
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Open yet sheltered: The veranda simultaneously connects to the garden and swimming pool, functioning as a living room, a TV room, and an outdoor extension of the kitchen.
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Structural integration: Its placement structures the entire composition of the house, organizing two main transversal volumes and a rear annex for a home office.
This bold reinterpretation respects tradition but projects it into a minimalist, modern framework.
Spatial Composition: Layers of Living
The house is divided into distinct volumes, each supporting specific functions but unified by fluid transitions.
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Lower volume → houses utilities, kitchen, and the living room. Sliding door-frames disappear into walls, allowing the internal space to open entirely to the garden for cross-ventilation and visual continuity.
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Upper volume → contains the bedrooms, offering privacy yet maintaining a dialogue with the veranda below.
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Third floor → includes a small multi-purpose living space and an upper deck, expanding the home vertically and offering city views.
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Annex → located at the rear, this space houses a home office, reflecting the increasing importance of flexible work-from-home environments.
This composition creates a house of layers, where everyday life flows from intimate interiors to open communal areas.
Manipulating Proportions and Atmosphere
A major design challenge was balancing ceiling heights across different spaces.
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The veranda, placed under the bedrooms, naturally had a lower ceiling to foster intimacy and warmth.
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The living room, however, required a sense of grandeur. By lowering the living room floor relative to the veranda and garden, Studio MK27 achieved:
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Elongated proportions for elegance.
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A double perception of scale—coziness under the veranda and expansiveness in the living room.
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A seamless flow between indoor and outdoor spaces without overwhelming transitions.
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This manipulation of section demonstrates MK27’s mastery of atmosphere, turning structural constraints into design opportunities.
Minimalism with Warmth
While the overall aesthetic of House 6 is resolutely minimalist—clean slabs, pilotis, elongated volumes—the interiors are infused with warmth and tactility. Natural materials, careful detailing, and soft transitions ensure the house is not an abstract object but a comfortable family home.
Sliding doors and windows frame lush greenery, blurring distinctions between garden, veranda, and room. As in many MK27 projects, nature is not a backdrop but a co-star.
House 6 in the Context of Brazilian Modernism
House 6 continues Brazil’s long modernist tradition of indoor–outdoor living, seen in works from colonial houses to modernist masters like Oscar Niemeyer. However, it goes further by:
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Reinterpreting the veranda as architecture’s protagonist rather than an appendage.
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Using modern minimalism to refine a vernacular typology.
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Embedding the design within São Paulo’s urban context, yet offering an oasis of green and air.
It stands as an evolution of Brazilian architectural DNA—a house that honors tradition while speaking in the language of the present.
