- Project: Tree House
- Architect: Sala 03 Arquitetura
- Location: Brazil, São Paulo
- Year: 2019
- Area: 630 m2
- Photography: Favaro Jr
Nestled in the verdant countryside of São Paulo, Tree House—or Casa das Árvores—by Sala 03 Arquitetura reimagines contemporary residential living as a seamless extension of nature. Designed for a couple and their young daughter relocating from the capital, the home offers a tranquil environment for daily life while also serving as a weekend retreat for family and friends.
Preserving Trees and Optimizing the Site
The project’s name pays homage to the lot’s original condition: a densely treed 2,000 m² site. The architects’ main challenge was to honor this natural setting by removing as few trees as possible while maximizing the home’s functionality. The result is a layout that balances privacy with openness, integrating architecture into the forest-like surroundings.
An L-Shaped Plan for Privacy and Community
The residence adopts an L-shaped configuration, with the entertainment and pool areas oriented toward the center of the plot and the private bedrooms aligned toward the side garden. This layout creates a clear distinction between social and intimate zones, while also ensuring that the pool and outdoor living spaces receive abundant sunlight throughout the day.
The orientation enhances both privacy and connectivity: the social wing, parallel to the street, is ideal for hosting, while the perpendicular private wing offers seclusion and views of the lush gardens.
Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Living
Upon entry, visitors encounter a fluid sequence of spaces designed to adapt to both daily living and entertaining. A living and dining room lies on one side, balanced by a gourmet area on the other. Glass partitions allow these spaces to be either fully integrated for gatherings or separated for privacy.
The bedroom wing features five suites arranged along a glass corridor inspired by Le Corbusier’s architectural promenade concept. This passageway frames the exterior landscape, filtering natural light and creating a dynamic play of shadows as the day progresses.
Material Palette and Earthy Elegance
The façade is clad in solid brick with dark-toned accents, complemented by brown-painted metal beams. This earthy palette grounds the house in its natural surroundings, merging rustic warmth with contemporary sophistication. The restrained materiality emphasizes subtlety over ostentation, aligning with the home’s ethos of blending into the landscape.
A Home in Harmony with Nature
Tree House is more than a residence—it is an architectural response to living with nature. Its single-level design, earth-toned materials, and careful site integration reflect a deep respect for the environment. By balancing rustic and modern elements, Sala 03 Arquitetura has created a residence that is at once intimate, expansive, and timeless.
The idea to position the interior of the space alongside two main axes, maximizing the potential of the outside space, allowed for a more coefficient utilization of the lot.
Upon entering the home, there is a living and dining room to one side and a gourmet area to the other. Designed to meet the family’s hosting and day-to-day living needs, the spaces can be completely integrated or separated by a glass division, allowing for more privacy when needed.
Inspired by Le Corbusier’s architectural promenade concept, a set of five suites is distributed alongside a glass corridor that is perpendicular to the street. This placement adds value to the bedrooms’ access point and frames the exterior, enabling an interplay of light and shadow within the passageway.
With the intention of emulating the home to the landscape, earth tones were used for the facades. The solid brick joined with a darker tone, along with metal beams which were painted brown, combine the rustic and sophisticated, generating a facade that is both unique and delicate.
