Architects:Bernardes Arquitetura

Area :3385 m²

Year :2018

Photographs :Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Lead Architect :Thiago Bernardes

Design Team : Camila Tariki, Antonia Bernardes, Francisco Abreu, Ilana Daylac, Paulo Martins, Victor Campos, Thiago Moretti, Bruno Magalhães, Fabiana Porto, Daniel Vannucchi, Juliana Biancardine, Renata Evaristo, Alberto Botafogo

Projeto Estrutural Em Concreto : Gilberto do Valle

Paisagismo : Isabel Duprat

Air Conditioner : Greenwatt

City : Río de Janeiro

Country : Brazil

Sitting on the top of a hill where a preexisting property was located, the Asa House (‘asa’ is the Portuguese word for wing) entirely rebuilt the relationship between site and building. The house creates a ‘harmoniously contrasting’ relationship between landscape and architecture through the articulation of partially underground spaces and emerging transparent volumes.

The site’s topography was designed in order to maximize the use of existing semi-flat surfaces as outdoor living areas while fitting key functional, circulation, and soil stabilization elements in-between retaining walls. All-access to the house – from visitors to staff – is done through this ‘topographic plinth’, which slowly uncurtains the surrounding landscape through sinuous passageways adapted to the original topography.