- Project: House 258
- Architect: Cornetta Arquitetura
- Location: Brazil, São Roque, São Paulo
- Year: 2024
- Area: 515 m2
- Photography: João Paulo Soares
A Dialogue Between Concrete, Forest, and Light
Nestled in the lush hills of São Roque, House 258 by Cornetta Arquitetura redefines the relationship between architecture and landscape. Perched on a steeply sloped site surrounded by native vegetation, the residence balances robust materiality with light, suspended spaces, creating a home that is both anchored to the earth and open to the horizon.
This project exemplifies the studio’s approach to precision, restraint, and sensitivity to context, transforming a complex site into a serene architectural statement.
Site & Concept
The site offers sweeping views across a green valley while being enclosed by mature trees. The challenge was to embrace the surrounding nature without disturbing it. Rather than dominating the terrain, the house negotiates its contours—preserving the existing grove and framing strategic openings toward the landscape.
Three main visual references guide the design: the dense forest canopy, the distant hills, and the open sky. Each façade responds to one of these horizons, ensuring that every space in the house maintains a direct relationship with nature.
Volumetric Composition
House 258 is organized into two distinct yet interdependent levels:
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The lower base, partially buried in the terrain, anchors the home to the slope. Built in exposed concrete and local stone, it contains storage areas, garage, and service spaces while acting as a retaining structure that stabilizes the steep site.
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The upper pavilion contrasts this solidity with lightness. Constructed in steel and glass, it projects outward and appears to float above the landscape. This level houses the social and private areas—living, dining, kitchen, and bedrooms—linked by a continuous terrace that blurs the boundary between interior and exterior.
Access to the main floor is through a bridge-like stairway, offering a cinematic approach that transitions from forest floor to elevated canopy.
Materials & Structure
Material contrast defines the architectural expression. The raw concrete base expresses permanence and weight, while the upper volume—clad in charred wood (Shou Sugi Ban) and glass—embodies transparency and impermanence.
The slender steel structure allows for generous cantilevers and minimal columns, emphasizing horizontality and reinforcing the sensation that the upper floor is suspended within the trees. Wide overhangs and operable glass walls promote natural ventilation and solar control, optimizing comfort throughout the year.
Inside, materials are left honest and tactile: polished concrete floors, warm wood ceilings, and natural finishes reflect the surrounding environment. The interiors feel continuous with the exterior landscape, with light filtering through the trees creating a play of shadow and texture throughout the day.
Light, Shadow & Atmosphere
Light in House 258 is treated as an architectural material. Large openings invite the morning sun into the social spaces, while deep overhangs temper the harsh afternoon light. Bedrooms are oriented toward the forest, receiving soft, filtered illumination through vertical wooden slats that ensure privacy and connection to nature.
At night, the house glows subtly from within, turning the glass pavilion into a lantern among the trees—a quiet beacon in the São Roque hills.
Sustainability & Site Integration
Beyond aesthetics, sustainability is embedded in the project’s logic. The elevated structure minimizes site impact, preserving tree roots and allowing for natural drainage. The concrete base provides thermal mass, stabilizing interior temperatures, while cross-ventilation and large openings reduce the need for mechanical cooling.
Natural materials such as stone and wood are locally sourced, and the construction techniques emphasize longevity, low maintenance, and adaptability to the humid tropical environment.
House 258 by Cornetta Arquitetura is an exploration of balance—between nature and structure, weight and lightness, openness and refuge. With its floating pavilion, grounded base, and delicate material interplay, the residence achieves harmony with the forested terrain while maintaining a strong architectural presence.
This is not just a house within the landscape—it is architecture as landscape, a composition where nature, structure, and light coexist in timeless equilibrium.
