Casa 7×37 by CR2ARCHITECTURE
Inspiring 1,991 sq ft residence located in São Paulo, Brazil, designed in 2013 by CR2ARCHITECTURE.
Description by CR2ARCHITECTURE
Spending hours in the car for a weekend out of Sao Paulo was not part of the plan for this couple, with a small daughter and a second baby to come. That´s how they had the unusual idea of building a second house in the city of São Paulo, as a leisure house, less than a kilometer from their actual apartment.
The initial request was a compact house, with flexible spaces considering a barbecue grill, a swimming pool, two suites and a big green area (as they live in an apartment)
The old building, a former school swimming, occupied 100% of the land in a privileged neighborhood, full of trees on the streets. So the decision was to demolish it and make a new construction.
The garden works as the connecting point of all social area of the house at the ground floor: leisure, kitchen / living and family room. A wide garden was one of their first requests, considering they live in an apartment without an open space, this was a crucial issue.
In one of the garden walls there is an artistic panel by Athos Bulcão. The panel, along the entire length of the pool, is a tribute to the Brazilian modernist architecture and the client, who came from Brasilia and grew seeing the artist’s works.
The kitchen/living room is a multiuse space, without any walls with a long bench that contains all the sinks, grill, cabinets, etc, from one side to another of the space.
The rooms located on the first floor are protected by a wooden pergola overlooking the garden and the trees from the street.
The chosen coating are easy to clean and practical in a house with no frills or rules. The granilite used bear kids running, after diving in the pool, and the wood floor on the second floor provides warmth. The deck along the house allows permeable areas and the white stone allows a continuation of the garage with the causeway. Furthermore, we tried to integrate visual and spatially the inside to the outside with the use of large frames..
For the furniture, we chose items that could easily be moved from one place to another, as this flexible house asks.
The gate bordering the lot is made by slatted wood, all cast, guaranteeing some overlap between the lot and the city. The wooden deck draws the external route linking the entrance to the living room TV in the background.
The dimensions of the land (7x37m) suggested a rational construction that optimizes the construction site, so we chose the metallic structure as the constructive system. Thus the beams and pillars arrive ready to be assembled in a few days, which, together with the use of dry slabs (wall panel) and dry wall, allowed the construction to be ready in just eight months.
The result is a house with approximately 185sm, which appears to be bigger than it is, thanks to integration and continuity of enclosed spaces and garden.
Photography by Rafaela Netto
- by Matt Watts
