AN House in Paraná, Brazil by Guilherme Torres.

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The modest, unassuming exterior of AN House in Paraná, Brazil, completely belies the enormity of the building tucked in behind it. Designed for a couple with three teenage daughters, it’s a parents’ dream home. A sanctuary no less.

Architects Studio Guilherme Torres have taken their lead from the fantastic, hot weather that Paraná experiences for most of the year. They’ve opened up the house to take full advantage of it. And like most designs that are exceptional, it all comes from a simple floor plan. It’s basically a U-shape, one that wraps around an open courtyard, allowing for a cross-flow between the different areas of the house.

“Divided into three blocks – two downstairs and one that forms the upper deck – forming a “U”, they organise social area, the lounge and intimate area on an impactful way,” noted the architects.

Whilst the plan may be simple, it’s the attention to the material selection, application and contrast that is one of the elements that make this house so striking.

Let’s start at the entry; there’s a moment right here. Walking down the timber-battened corridor you already start to feel a thrill run down your spine. The Cumaru wood is stunning. The application of it even more so. This is clearly no ordinary household threshold.

“Fully closed to the street, the lobby was organised in a large wooden box, like a theatre stage,” said the architects.

It feels like walking into a meditation resort. It’s calming, beautifully detailed and the play of light and shadows of the walls and floor add colour and texture to the already sophisticated, clean lines.

Through this entry box, you arrive at the ground floor. Here, the timber continues in the form of timber panelled walls, again in the Cumaru, but it’s met with a combination of exposed, concrete walls and striking marble floors.

The circulation is organised behind a single, marble clad wall in the dining room, neatly hiding the area between the hall and the staircase.

Cool, marble stairs lead you up to the next level where the project employs brise-soleil: the traditional vertical fins made of timber that help reduce heat gain within the building by deflecting sunlight. It makes for an echo of the entry foyer, but here the walls are white and sunlight dapples on the wooden floors. The addition of white walls is stark and refreshing on this level, but the continuity of the Cumaru means you never feel disconnected from the overarching design. The timber sliding panels on the bedrooms open the entire level to the central courtyard below.

The large, open spans of this house make it easy to be in. And the sheer scale of the condominium makes it easy to loose three teenagers and all of their friends. It’s a beautiful synergy of social spaces and private areas, all developed and integrated in harmony.

It’s a stunning example of what can happen when you take a few simple materials, a basic floor plan and apply a methodology consciously, evoking feelings of freedom, peace, expansiveness, privacy and engagement. For great architecture evokes a sensory and an emotional experience through the physicality of its expression. And this house… it does all of that. In spades.

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