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Delicious Contrasts in the AS-House in Brazil

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The prolific São Paulo-based studio Guilherme Torres – begun in 2001 – has created another lovely tropical modern masterpiece in the AS House in Cornélio Procópio, in the state of Paraná in Brazil.

The site naturally offered two stories to the house, both located around the patio and pool…

…because the steepness of the site made it possible to embed the house into the slope – like an uncovered box, inside walls 7.5 meters high.

The cool and refreshing patio has no garden, just palm trees around the pool.

The high walls keep the family’s privacy and security from the busy streets of this small city in south Brazil.

The bedrooms (kept from our view) use a signature dark, rich, rustic wood, creating a contrast in texture, like the upstairs shutters seen here.

The same rich cumaru wood is used throughout.

Guilherme is always investigating the limits of the materials that he works with in his projects, in which rustic elements contrast with absolute white.

White cement is used in all the public areas of the 6,080 square foot contemporary home.

The furniture is hugely oversized for large dinner parties –  a 7 meter (21 ft) long table and a 10 meters (30 ft) long sofa.

The architect, who acquired his technical language early, by working in an architectural office as a teenager, also does furniture design.

His architecture is in some ways more like a gallery in which to showcase furniture – focused on the contrast between black and white.

The motto he has tattooed on his arm: More. Better. Harder. Faster. creates a tension with his guiding principle – “Less is more.”

But the results are consistently interesting and elegant.