journal
Photography: André Nazareth
19 / 02 / 2025
In the heart of an urban plot, a jewel of modernist architecture has resurfaced with a new identity.
The Itaúna House project, based on preserving an original Oscar Niemeyer house, reinterprets the concepts of space, integration, and landscape, expanding beyond the limits of preexistence. The acquisition of the adjacent land allowed for an intervention that redefined the relationship between the building and its surroundings, opening up space for a garden that dialogues with the new and old structures in a fluid and continuous way.
The project is developed in three distinct volumes but is interconnected by routes designed as passageways, walkways, and staircases. This approach establishes an architectural reading of continuity and movement, where the separation between interior and exterior dissolves in a play of openings and strategic circulations.
The original house receives a striking intervention on the façade: large pivoting panels, structured by a metal mesh, allow a dynamic modulation between transparency and protection, moulding the relationship between the internal spaces and the surrounding landscape. A long bench draws the boundaries of the slabs, extending the spatial experience and emphasising the fusion between architecture and nature.
A New Volume in Suspension
The new leisure annexe is the centrepiece of the composition, suspended over a plane that stretches between the pool and the garden as if floating in the landscape. With a materiality that favours stone and concrete, it establishes a counterpoint to the structural lightness of the other constructions, demarcating the difference between the language of the expansion and the memory of the original building.
Vertical circulation gains prominence with the introduction of a spiral staircase, leading to an elevated volume where large sliding glass panels promote a constant dialogue between interior and exterior. At the heart of the project, a circular oculus acts as a cut-out in the ceiling that lets in natural light and visually connects the different levels of the house, reinforcing the atmosphere of continuity and transparency.
The project's materiality celebrates the interaction between natural and industrial elements, creating contrasts that enrich the architectural experience. The juxtaposition between stone, concrete and metal elements emphasises the aesthetics of the whole and reinforces the intervention's narrative: a balance between solidity and lightness, between permanence and transformation.
Itaúna House is not just an exercise in expansion but a gesture of reinterpretation and valorisation of the modernist architectural legacy. The intervention respects and expands the dialogue between spaces. It creates a residence that preserves the original work's essence and projects it into a new era where architecture and landscape are in perfect harmony.
The project is developed in three distinct volumes but is interconnected by routes designed as passageways, walkways, and staircases. This approach establishes an architectural reading of continuity and movement, where the separation between interior and exterior dissolves in a play of openings and strategic circulations.
The original house receives a striking intervention on the façade: large pivoting panels, structured by a metal mesh, allow a dynamic modulation between transparency and protection, moulding the relationship between the internal spaces and the surrounding landscape. A long bench draws the boundaries of the slabs, extending the spatial experience and emphasising the fusion between architecture and nature.
A New Volume in Suspension
The new leisure annexe is the centrepiece of the composition, suspended over a plane that stretches between the pool and the garden as if floating in the landscape. With a materiality that favours stone and concrete, it establishes a counterpoint to the structural lightness of the other constructions, demarcating the difference between the language of the expansion and the memory of the original building.
Vertical circulation gains prominence with the introduction of a spiral staircase, leading to an elevated volume where large sliding glass panels promote a constant dialogue between interior and exterior. At the heart of the project, a circular oculus acts as a cut-out in the ceiling that lets in natural light and visually connects the different levels of the house, reinforcing the atmosphere of continuity and transparency.
The project's materiality celebrates the interaction between natural and industrial elements, creating contrasts that enrich the architectural experience. The juxtaposition between stone, concrete and metal elements emphasises the aesthetics of the whole and reinforces the intervention's narrative: a balance between solidity and lightness, between permanence and transformation.
Itaúna House is not just an exercise in expansion but a gesture of reinterpretation and valorisation of the modernist architectural legacy. The intervention respects and expands the dialogue between spaces. It creates a residence that preserves the original work's essence and projects it into a new era where architecture and landscape are in perfect harmony.
