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An Enigmatic Hideaway in the Brazilian Jungle

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You can imagine encountering this uncanny stage set in an old Tarzan movie.

What mysteries lie within this surreal building deep in Brazil’s mountainous jungle in the Rio Bonito hinterland?

The eerie structure is home for Luiz Carlos Mello, director of the Museum Images of the Unconscious in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Water and fire, weight and weightlessness, the archaic and the modern contrast brutally here in a unique cosmic habitat conjured by architect Carla Juaçaba.

A dreamlike staircase carved from blocky stones is reminiscent of an ancient Mayan ruin.

A primitive log stove suffices for cooking in the extremely spare space built close to a river.

The house is suspended on modern steel beams slung between a pair of ancient seeming stone walls.

The weightiness of the two stone supports is in sharp contrast to the weightlessness of the near-empty space between them.

The extremely basic structure is suspended above the ground on steel I-beams.

Next to the stone, two skylights at each end separate the roof from the heavy structural stone walls.

Each end of the sliver of skylight is met by floor to ceiling glazing that brings the jungle into a rudimentary kitchen.

Equally rudimentary, stairs are merely several casually stacked pieces of wood.

Set deep in the Three Peaks nature preserve, the almost brutally simple retreat provides a place to dream, unencumbered by the distractions of civilization.