Brazilian architecture firm Presente Estúdio has completed House Aura, a striking 470-square-meter residential project in Santa Maria, Brazil, that demonstrates innovative approaches to privacy and solar orientation through its distinctive L-shaped design. The 2024 project, photographed by Cristiano Bauce with coordination by Luzia Olivier and interior design by Ambê, addresses the unique challenges of corner lot construction while creating a completely private internal garden.
The architectural team adopted an L-shaped floor plan specifically to maximize the benefits of optimal solar orientations for different areas of the house while establishing a secluded internal garden space. This strategic design approach was particularly crucial given the property's location on a corner lot, which naturally presents challenges related to privacy and exposure from multiple street-facing sides.
Privacy protection emerged as a central design priority, especially considering the inherent exposure challenges of a corner lot location and the property's position facing the only public road within the residential development. The architects responded to these privacy demands by carefully defining the external facades of the house, creating a sophisticated balance between openness and seclusion.
The design team created displaced planes that observe the angles of the lot, representing the project's core essence through exploration of visual and spatial subtleties that exist between opposing concepts of opacity and hypervisibility. These planes transform the traditional character of ceramic blocks, a very conventional building material, into something entirely new and innovative.
At the corner location, which represents the most public area of the house, the transition between exterior and interior spaces is enhanced by the transparency of specially designed bricks that gently close off and welcome visitors simultaneously. The opaque facades gradually dematerialize in front of the main windows of the south facade, allowing natural light to enter while preserving the privacy of interior spaces.
A single slit interrupts the delicate transitions of the main facade, where a recessed wooden plane supports two openings for direct lighting in the social area of the house and signals a focal point in the interior design. Through the transparent planes, the architects created a mysterious ambiance that operates between dazzling and confusing effects, simultaneously revealing and protecting the interior spaces.
Light, both natural and artificial, serves the enigmatic design concept and creates an aesthetic that is psychological and visual in nature. This entire atmosphere of seduction through architectural subtleties is completed by the suspension of the house in relation to the ground level, with the entire lateral facade of the residence detached from the ground and appearing to float above the garden space.
The garden design plays a crucial role in the overall composition, acting as a backdrop on the lateral facade while standing out on the front facade through the display of shrub species positioned in the foreground. The formal arrangement follows organic principles, harmonizing with the nature of field species that spread across the lawn areas. This landscape ensemble enhances textures, aromas, and color nuances among the various plant species when viewed up close, while creating a cohesive and vibrant landscape composition when observed from a distance.
Internally, behind the brick skin on the front facade, wooden planes house all the access points of the residence, creating a sophisticated entry sequence. Service and vehicle access points are designed as solid, opaque, and discreet elements, while the main social entry features an empty, attractive portico design. The lights that pass through the concrete pergola provide scenic character during the sunny hours of the day, enhancing the architectural drama of the entrance.
The design creates a carefully orchestrated path of gradual compression through the external hall, reaching its peak intensity at the moment of access, then decompressing again in the spacious and integrated internal area. This internal space features large openings to the internal patio, establishing a strong connection between indoor and outdoor living spaces while maintaining the privacy that was central to the project's design objectives.
