- Project: Pleated House
- Architect: Leo Romano
- Location: Brazil, Goiânia
- Year: 2023
- Area: 536 m2
- Photography: Edgard Ceasr
Sculptural Lightness in Concrete
The Pleated House by Leo Romano redefines the expressive potential of Brazilian residential architecture. Combining structure and sculpture, this 536 m² residence in Goiânia appears both monumental and delicate — a seamless fusion of heavy materiality and graceful form.
The house takes its name from its most distinctive feature: a pleated concrete façade that folds rhythmically across the upper floor, transforming the building into a piece of inhabitable sculpture. Behind this dynamic geometry lies a quiet and balanced home designed for contemporary living in Brazil’s tropical climate.
Concept and Design Approach
From the start, Romano’s goal was to design a residence that expressed both solidity and lightness. The home’s upper volume, clad in pleated concrete panels, appears to hover above a transparent lower floor composed of glass and open living areas.
This deliberate contrast — massive above, ethereal below — gives the architecture a unique visual tension. The pleats introduce movement and shadow, softening the severity of the concrete while adding rhythm to the façade.
The design is not simply aesthetic; it is functional. The pleated geometry filters sunlight, protects against glare, and improves thermal comfort, while the large glass panels below invite light, breeze, and views of the surrounding garden.
Layout and Spatial Organization
The house unfolds across three levels, carefully zoned to separate social, private, and service areas:
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Lower level: a discreet basement houses storage, mechanical rooms, and parking, ensuring that the social areas remain visually uncluttered.
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Ground floor: a transparent and open plan integrates the living room, dining room, gourmet kitchen, and pool terrace. Glass walls dissolve boundaries between interior and exterior, creating a constant dialogue with the landscape.
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Upper floor: wrapped by the pleated shell, this level holds the private spaces — bedrooms, a family lounge, and reading nooks. The pleats provide shading and privacy, while openings are positioned to frame select views.
Circulation is fluid and intuitive, with transitions between spaces defined by light, texture, and volume rather than walls.
Materials and Atmosphere
Concrete and glass form the primary language of the Pleated House, but their dialogue is nuanced. The pleated concrete panels are carefully cast to express both strength and refinement. The glass façade below, meanwhile, creates a sense of levitation — as though the heavy mass above is floating effortlessly.
Inside, the palette remains calm and natural: polished stone floors, warm wooden accents, and minimalist furnishings create a serene backdrop for daily life. Every material reflects light differently, generating subtle variations throughout the day. The play of sunlight and shadow across the pleated façade becomes part of the home’s living identity.
Light, Water, and Reflection
Light is the true protagonist of this house. The pleated surfaces capture the changing daylight, creating a shifting choreography of shadows that animates the façade from dawn to dusk.
At the entrance, a reflecting pool introduces calm and a sense of arrival. The water mirrors the pleated geometry, doubling its sculptural impact while cooling the microclimate around the glass base.
The pool terrace extends the main living space outward, forming a private oasis framed by minimalist landscaping. Here, water, structure, and sky interact continuously — blurring architecture and nature into a single composition.
Architectural Expression
The Pleated House exemplifies Leo Romano’s architectural philosophy: blending art, geometry, and lived experience. Every gesture in the design — the pleat, the void, the shadow — serves both aesthetic and functional intent.
This house challenges the notion that concrete must feel heavy or static. Instead, it behaves like fabric — folded, fluid, and expressive. The pleats lend the façade depth and delicacy, transforming what might have been a rigid box into an architectural performance of light and form.
A Home as Sculpture
While bold in expression, the house remains deeply human in scale. The open ground floor fosters connection and hospitality, while the shaded upper floor provides retreat and quiet. Together, they create a balance between social openness and personal introspection.
The Pleated House stands as a testament to Romano’s ability to sculpt architecture that is both visually striking and emotionally grounded. It reflects his ongoing exploration of form, material, and Brazilian sensibility — architecture that is rational in structure yet poetic in spirit.
The Pleated House is not merely a home; it is a statement on the possibilities of contemporary Brazilian architecture. Through precision, texture, and proportion, Leo Romano has created a residence that fuses art and habitation.
The interplay of concrete, light, and shadow transforms the everyday into the extraordinary — proving that when structure and poetry unite, architecture transcends its physical boundaries to become living art.
