Nestled in the urban city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Maracanã House is a breath of fresh air designed by architecture studio Terra e Tuma Arquitetos Associados. This 1,991 square foot (185 square meters) contemporary home has a unique geometry, opaque in grayish materiality, clear in glass surfaces or vibrant on the access mural, showcasing its presence like a new event around the bucolic surroundings, where curious people wonder about this new construction. Its discordant geometry in relation to the traditional houses of the neighborhood surprises upon the moment of arrival.

More than a space, its levels gradually form a path through which outside and inside merge in a proper and continuous shape. The house discovers new possibilities to the limitations of the scanty plot, whose complexity exceeds horizontal and vertical routes which invariably leads to a new spacial experience, capable to reveal singularities of the district’s geography.

“Entering the house doesn’t mean to set apart the city, which leads us to it or to close off a disconnected universe. Its access has to be discovered from behind the ceramics mural painted in black, white and red compositions. Entering the house means, simply to transpose a succession of spaces, now narrow, now lightened, now shady, which leads us always to new experiences.”

“The house’s arrival happens from the emptiness, which is a viewpoint to the living space and also an identification area of its functional sections: social and services below, intimate above. Like the city streets, the lights between their spaces enlighten in every direction, through big glass openings which sets against the solidity of the concrete materiality which it is built.”

Photos: Pedro Kok