自然别墅丨巴西圣保罗丨Guto Requena工作室

In São Paulo’s Jardins neighbourhood, Brazilian architect Guto Requena, founder of his eponymous studio, reimagined a 1962 modernist apartment by Botti and Rubin. He transformed the 150-square-metre space into what he calls a “hybrid habitat” where concrete meets code, and nature intertwines with technology.

A single look at the Varanda Apartment tells you this is no ordinary home. Rather than organising space around the traditional bedroom-living-room formula, Requena has created a fluid environment that prioritises activities over rooms. Parametric timber panels slide and reconfigure, allowing the apartment to adapt to different moments of the day and various modes of living. Design that responds rather than dictates.

What strikes most powerfully about this project is its relationship with nature. The entire perimeter of the apartment is enveloped by an urban forest of native Brazilian species, creating a microclimate that blurs the boundary between interior and exterior. This biophilic approach isn’t just aesthetic—it’s fundamental to the apartment’s identity and liveability. The plants breathe life into the space, making it feel genuinely alive and ever-changing.

Meanwhile, the furniture and objects tell distinctly Brazilian stories. An accumulated collection spans eras of Brazilian design, where modernist classics sit alongside contemporary pieces. The dining area exemplifies this approach—an eclectic assembly of chairs that feel less like a matching set and more like a gathering of individuals in conversation. It’s this refusal to match everything that gives the space its warmth and authenticity.

“Concrete and virtual come together to build a hybrid spatiality in which not only walls or pieces of furniture move, but which include an active participation of the resident in its configuration,” explains Requena. The apartment incorporates smart home automation that allows spaces to be reconfigured digitally, creating what the architect describes as “dynamic architecture, capable of accepting everyday unforeseen events and adapting to different ways of life.”

This is sustainable residential design in the truest sense—not just in its environmental credentials, but in its ability to evolve with its inhabitant. The Varanda Apartment doesn’t aim for perfection or cutting-edge novelty in every corner. Instead, it embraces a more honest approach, one that feels Brazilian in its soul, rooted in place and culture at a time when globalisation threatens to homogenise our built environments.

Extreme love.

[Images courtesy of Estudio Guto Requena. Photography by Manuel Sá.]