In a place like this, the architect’s first question is: what kind of architecture is appropriate for inhabiting it. Vila Marebo, designed by architect Frederico Zanelato, answers through the organisation of space. The commission came from a long-standing collaborator and was to include two independent blocks joined by a walkway and a generous glazed gallery. Starting from this, the studio conceived the house as a miniature village occupying the entire plot, where the routes between volumes and the in-between spaces carry as much weight as the rooms themselves.

Two volumes and a gallery

The design rests on two conditions that are a necessity in southern Bahia: orientation to the sun and the use of the wind. Splitting the house into two bodies allows the breeze to pass through the whole, and strategically placed openings ensure cross-ventilation inside. The result is a porous architecture, in which the boundary between inside and outside dissolves and the tropical climate becomes part of the project as one more material.

The two volumes read clearly from the street. They are white, limewashed bodies, crowned by ceramic tile roofs that slope in opposite directions and rest on turned timber posts whose ends protrude beneath the eaves, a direct reference to the traditional house of the Bahian coast. Between them, set back, the glazed gallery is wrapped in a curtain of vertically arranged biriba rods. The rods keep their natural, slightly irregular shape, and form a veil that protects the interior without closing it off. By day it filters the sun and the gaze; at dusk, with the lights on, the façade becomes a lantern reflected on the pool and the sand street.

The house is entered through a pivoting timber door, flanked by louvred panels, which leads into the living area, a double-height space covered by a gallery with a timber structure and glass enclosures. Beneath the gallery’s transparent roof, a ceiling of thin timber rods acts as a lattice, letting light through in bands that fall across the floor. This roof guides the eye and the step towards the living area, and turns the entrance into a gradual passage towards the outside. On the upper floor, a walkway crosses the double-height void to join the two blocks; its railings of timber trunks and braided rope, together with the fibre lamps hanging over the space, extend the same material logic of the whole.

The house changes character towards the garden

Towards the garden, the house changes character and opens up completely. The ground floor extends into porches supported by timber trunks, and a broad deck connects the rooms with the swimming pool, which folds into an L beside it. The upper-floor terraces, with rustic timber railings, act as a roof for the spaces below. Beneath one of them is the outdoor kitchen, with a masonry counter and a long shelf lined with clay pieces; beneath the central gallery, a large dining area gathers around a round table, presided over by a lamp of plant fibre. The indoor kitchen opens onto the deck through large folding glass panels, so that on hot days the boundary between inside and outside disappears.

On the ground floor, a suite has a bathroom whose shower opens, through a pane of glass, onto a small private garden enclosed by a palisade of timber trunks, so that water, vegetation and sky become part of the same space. On the upper floor, two further suites have their own terraces, opening between palm trees towards the neighbouring rooftops. In the bedrooms, the mosquito nets suspended over the beds, the light fabrics and the clay pieces carry the same restraint as the exterior.

The choice of materials reflects a desire to belong

The white lime of the walls, the warmth of the timber, the glass and the natural fibres, present in the rope of the railings and the weave of the lamps, make up a palette recognisable in the vernacular architecture of the region, reinterpreted in a contemporary language. The leading role falls to biriba, a wood from the Atlantic Forest that is worked into thin rods and used to form ceilings and enclosures. Its function is twofold: it filters natural light, protecting the interiors from excess radiation, and it casts shifting shadows that move across floors and walls as the day advances. The house thus becomes a habitable sundial, and the material justifies its presence on climatic and sensory grounds. The same material extends to the boundaries of the plot, resolved with palisades of timber trunks, and its presence ends up unifying house and garden under a single texture.

The project also incorporates a series of handcrafted elements that enter into dialogue with the architecture. The clay vessels and jars, the basketry, the woven fibre lamps, the solid wood furniture and the cane chairs refer to the crafts of the region and give continuity, at a domestic scale, to the same handmade logic that defines the construction.

This attention to the local runs through Zanelato’s career, for whom bioclimatic architecture, natural ventilation and the use of local materials constitute a design ethic rather than a label. At Vila Marebo this ethic translates into a light, open construction, which relies on the climate to achieve comfort and on the building tradition of the region to find its form.

Inhabiting the pause

The house acquires its full meaning in use. The fluid organisation of the programme encourages encounters, long conversations and shared leisure, and turns the routes between volumes into places to linger. Those who live in it wake to light filtered through the timber rods, feel the cool morning air drift in through the terraces and let the sea breeze set the rhythm of the day. Holidays here take on another quality, ceasing to be an interruption and becoming a way of inhabiting. The architect himself sums it up with an idea that leads back to the starting point, to the river that must be crossed to reach Caraíva. To be at Vila Marebo, he writes, is to understand that “time in Bahia moves to a different rhythm”. The house embraces that time as a condition of the project and makes it habitable.

Project: Vila Marebo.
Location: Caraíva, Porto Seguro, Bahía (Brasil).
Programme: Residencia vacacional en dos bloques con área social de doble altura, cocina abierta a zona gourmet y tres suites.
Area: 200 m².
Completed: 2025.
Architecture: Frederico Zanelato Arquitetos.
Lead architect: Frederico Zanelato.
Photography: Oka fotografia.
Main materials: cal blanca, madera, vidrio, fibras naturales y varas de biriba.
Source: Frederico Zanelato.

Frederico Zanelato

Frederico Zanelato (Ribeirão Preto, 1972) came to architecture by way of craft. As a child he learned drawing, painting and sculpture at the Casa da Cultura Cândido Portinari in his home town, and as a teenager he added theatre and advertising and architectural drawing at the Bauhaus school. That early training, closer to the workshop than to the classroom, helps explain a body of work that thinks through material and the hand before it thinks through the image.

He graduated in Architecture and Urbanism from the Universidade Braz Cubas in 1999, the same year he founded his studio, Frederico Zanelato Arquitetos, based in Mogi das Cruzes, in the state of São Paulo. He went on to complete the professional master’s programme at the Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo (IPT), where he opened a line of research spanning sustainability, economics and contemporary design that continues to guide his practice. Between 2000 and 2005 he taught Architectural Design and Drawing at Braz Cubas, and he keeps his ties to the university through lectures and workshops at architecture schools across Brazil. Since 2014 he has also worked alongside Ar:Co Arquitetura Cooperativa.

The studio works across every scale of architecture and urbanism, guided by bioclimatic architecture as method, local materials as argument and natural ventilation as a way of engaging with the climate. This way of working has given rise to projects as different as the restoration of the historic Casarão do Chá in Mogi das Cruzes, Casa ER in southern Bahia, clad in a façade of handmade ceramics, and Casa MS in the São Paulo countryside. Nearly forty collaborators have been part of the team over more than twenty-five years.

From the outset, his career has run alongside the circuit of Brazilian awards and biennials. He was selected in several editions of the Prêmio Jovens Arquitetos, with an exhibition at the Museu da Casa Brasileira, took part in five editions of the São Paulo International Architecture Biennial and received a mention at the 6th Ibero-American Biennial (2007). In recent years he has been awarded third prize at the 5th Prêmio Saint-Gobain de Arquitetura Habitat Sustentável (2018), distinctions from AsBEA and first prize at the Premiação IAB 2021, the centenary edition of the Institute of Architects of Brazil in Bahia. That same year, the Korean Institute of Architects included his work in the Hidden Architects exhibition in Seoul. His relationship with competitions runs just as deep: from the Barcelona calls for housing in the historic centre (1995) and for the headquarters of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe (1998) to a school for Guinea-Bissau (2010) and the Campus Cabral in Curitiba (2012).

A career that began among pencils and clay in Ribeirão Preto and that still measures each project by its capacity to belong to its place.

The experience of the place is structured around movement. Walking across dunes, traversing the territory by vehicle or accompanying local fishermen in shellfish gathering are part of a daily life that preserves its direct relationship with the environment. Barra dos Remédios is an inhabited landscape: a quiet, sparsely visited place where observation, climate and geography define ways of being.

Within this context —remote, fragile and deeply rooted in local culture— the studio UNA barbara e valentim develops Casa Daia, a set of four bungalows that proposes a precise way of intervening in delicate territories. More than a hotel, the project designs a light infrastructure for temporary stays, where architecture, landscape and community evolve through a logic of continuity.

The starting point is the coexistence of ecosystems —mangroves, dunes, riverbanks, caatinga vegetation and coastal forest— within a former 220-hectare estate. In this context, architecture is understood as a measured insertion, capable of responding to distance, logistical complexity and the need to preserve a pre-existing balance.

An architecture that incorporates its surroundings

The four bungalows, each approximately 90 m², are positioned within natural clearings, preserving existing vegetation and maintaining the soil’s stability and natural condition. The decision to elevate the structures through light platforms and shallow foundations not only adapts to the terrain but also preserves its permeability and ecological continuity.

The orientation and positioning of the volumes respond to solar studies and prevailing winds. Cross ventilation, generous roofs and protected openings allow climate to become another material of the project. The architecture absorbs its surroundings, and living spaces extend into terraces and intermediate areas where life unfolds between shade, breeze and vegetation.

Modularity as a tool

Casa Daia represents the second built case of the Modular BV system, developed by the studio in collaboration with the Brazilian company Crosslam. Based on prefabricated modules of reforested eucalyptus CLT, the system allows much of the construction process to take place in a controlled environment, reducing time, waste and uncertainty.

Prefabrication is approached here as an extension of architectural thinking, rather than its replacement. Industrial precision supports the design. This logic had already been explored by the studio in the Modular Bahia project, where the system was applied in a domestic context, and finds in Casa Daia a greater scale and complexity.

Dwelling among natural systems

The spatial experience is organised in terms of gradation. The everyday sequence —from arrival to rest— unfolds through layers: vegetation, shade, wood, air. Architecture acts as a mediator between body and landscape, regulating the intensity of this relationship while maintaining its continuity.

This way of inhabiting is grounded in specific decisions: material continuity, the contained scale of the volumes, the controlled openness of enclosures. There are no superfluous gestures. Each element responds to a climatic, constructive or functional necessity.

A project that incorporates the time of the place

Before any intervention, the project begins with an environmental zoning study that defines where and how to build. Architecture reads the territory before projecting.

This same logic extends to the social dimension. Casa Daia establishes connections with nearby communities such as Pescada Nova and Praia Nova, integrating local labour and supporting social initiatives. At an operational level, it incorporates strategies such as rainwater harvesting, photovoltaic energy, waste management and agroforestry systems, while also reducing the use of disposable plastics.

In a context of accelerated territorial transformation, the project proposes to intervene by preserving the site, to build through balance and to inhabit while maintaining a bond with place. Casa Daia is conceived as part of a broader system in which architecture, landscape and community remain in equilibrium.

Project: Casa Deia.
Location: Barra dos Remédios – Barroquinha, Ceará, Brasil.
Built area: 4 bungalows de 90 m² cada uno.
Site area: 220 hectares.
Completion: 2025.
Architecture: UNA Barbara e Valentim.
Authors: Fernanda Bárbara, Fabio Valentim.
Team: Breno Sá Leitão, Rodrigo Carvalho, Camila Ungaro, Luís Cunha, Mariana Nunes.
Engineered timber supplier: Crosslam.
Construction: Abaeté Construtora e Incorporadora.
Interior design: Estudio MNMA.
Photography: Víctor Collor.
Source: UNA Barbara e Valentim.

Una Barbara e Valentim

Founded by Fernanda Barbara and Fabio Valentim, the studio Una Barbara e Valentim unfolds an architecture deeply connected to place, conceived in São Paulo and extended with sensitivity across Brazil. Since 1996, Fernanda and Fabio have shared a professional journey that began with Una Arquitetos, shaping an architectural poetics committed to both collective and individual life through the built environment. In 2019, they consolidated this vision under their current name, UNA Barbara e Valentim. See full biography.

Spatial organization and materiality

The house is structured on two levels, perceived differently depending on the vantage point. The lower floor, visible only from the front façade —built entirely in exposed concrete and stone— accommodates the garage, technical areas, and retaining walls. From the forest side, it appears as a single-storey dwelling.

Above this solid base rises a lighter pavilion, built with a steel structure and clad in charred wood (shou sugi ban), a technique that resonates with the natural materials of the surroundings and contrasts with the weight of the foundation. Expansive floor-to-ceiling windows unify the social spaces (living room, dining room, kitchen), inviting abundant natural light and offering sweeping views of the valley, while maintaining an uninterrupted visual connection with the forest.

Architectural narrative: contrasts and nuances

Casa 258 embraces the shifting conditions of light and shadow that its site provides. At times, sunlight bathes the concrete in golden tones; at others, the forest’s penumbra filters through the foliage, enveloping the social spaces in a sense of calm and freshness.

The main entrance is defined by a staircase connecting the two levels, guiding the visitor through a transition between solid and light, built and natural. The upper floor hosts the private areas (three en-suite bedrooms), shielded by panels of charred wood for greater intimacy, while the common areas are framed by large glass doors that invite more light and open the home to its dual surroundings: the preserved forest on one side, and the expansive valley on the other.

Beyond its aesthetic reflection and narrative of contrasts —shadow and light, forest and valley, weight and lightness— Casa 258 brings together technical rigor, plastic sensitivity, and a commitment to responsible land use.

Project: Casa 258.
Location: São Roque, São Paulo (Brazil).
Built area: 485 m².
Plot: 1.835 m².
Architecture: Cornetta Arquitetura.
Lead architect: Pedro Cornetta.
Design team: Pedro Cornetta, Renan Antiqueira, Luigi Borges.
Interior design: Cornetta Arquitetura.
Photography: João Paulos Soares.
Visualization: Cornetta Arquitetura.
Civil engineering: Salo Cazes.
Structural engineering: DRC Engenharia, Grupo RP Estrutura Metálica.
Environmental and MEP engineering: Latar Engenharia.
Lighting: Cornetta Arquitetura.
Construction: Cazes Construtora.
Supervision: Salo Cazes.
Completion: 2024.
Materials: Exposed concrete, local stone, steel structure, wood, charred wood (shou sugi ban).

Pedro Cornetta

PPedro Cornetta is a brazilian architect and founder of Cornetta Arquitetura, a practice based in Sertãozinho, in the state of São Paulo. His work focuses on high-quality residential housing, with particular attention to industrialized construction and sustainability applied to architectural practice.

Educated at the Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (USP), Cornetta began his professional career in the early 2000s and has led his own studio since 2009. His approach is defined by the integration of architecture, engineering, and design, aiming to optimize processes and reduce the environmental impact of construction.

The philosophy of his studio rests on three fundamental pillars:
• Industrialization and construction efficiency: adopting systems that streamline execution, reduce costs, and minimize waste.
• Sustainable commitment: prioritizing renewable materials such as laminated timber, lightweight metal structures, and prefabricated components, always with energy efficiency and environmental comfort in mind.
• Contemporary and personalized design: each project responds to the uniqueness of the client, the site, and its natural context, resulting in modern, functional homes that respect their surroundings.

Among his most recent works is Casa Guapuruvus (São Roque, 2023), a residence conceived as a laboratory of ecological practices. Here, laminated wood, metal structure, and lightweight building systems coexist while preserving the native forest and adapting architecture to the natural topography.

Pedro Cornetta’s work embodies a new generation of Brazilian architects who understand sustainability as a guiding principle. His studio demonstrates that technology, design, and environmental respect can come together in contemporary residential projects that aspire to be efficient, durable, and profoundly habitable.

Pedro Cornetta also cultivates his artistic side as a musician and composer. He leads the project Pedro Cornetta & The Imaginary Quartet, where he explores a contemporary jazz infused with electronic foundations and experimental atmospheres. His music reflects the same sensitivity that guides his architecture: a balance between structure and freedom, between technique and emotion.

Fuente: Cornetta Arquitetura.

Three independent volumes, connected by open patios and walkways, allow the house to host different family groups with varying degrees of privacy. The route flows between interiors bathed in wood and glass and exteriors that alternate shade and sun, seclusion and openness. Views unfold like scenes in a film: now the sea, now the river, now the forest. Wide timber platforms extend the interior floors of all spaces towards porches, open terraces and pathways that link the different modules of the house, dissolving the boundaries between dwelling and landscape.

At the heart of the project is the Modular BV system, developed by the studio in collaboration with Crosslam Brasil and construction company Abaeté. An independent timber structure and CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) panels allow for clean, fast and precise construction, with a drastic reduction in waste and minimal environmental impact. Reforested wood, modular components, cross ventilation, generous eaves, water harvesting and passive energy generation define a comprehensive bioclimatic strategy. Even the pitched roof is designed to let hot air escape, ensuring comfort without resorting to air conditioning.

The entire process, from design to construction, was developed in a BIM environment, coordinating architectural solutions and suppliers with millimetric precision. The incorporation of local labour not only optimised the construction but also transferred knowledge and valued traditional skills.

For Fernanda Barbara and Fabio Valentim, who founded the studio in 1996, Modular Bahia is the result of years of research into cross-laminated timber and a natural step towards a contemporary, sustainable housing model adaptable to any location in Brazil. “We wanted the system to guarantee a continuous assembly process, from project to construction, without losing architectural quality,” explains Barbara.

More than a house, Modular Bahia is a manifesto: an architectural gesture that unites industrial precision with the poetry of inhabiting a tropical landscape, responding with beauty and responsibility to the climatic and constructive challenges of our time.

Project: Modular Bahia.
Location: Bahia, Brasil.
Architecture and Interior Design: Una Barbara e Valentim.
Completion: 2024.
Collaborators: Breno Sá, Elena Geser, Giulia Giagio, Ícaro Cordaro, Igor Helian, Pedro Ribeiro, Rodrigo Carvalho, Tamar Firer, Victória Liz Cohen, Yasmin Dejean.
Structure: Crosslam Brasil – Estruturas de Madeira Engenheirada.
Construction: Abaeté Construtora.
Lighting design: Ricardo Heder.
Furniture: Novidário.
Photography: Joana França.
Source: Una Barbara e Valentim.

Una Barbara e Valentim

Founded by Fernanda Barbara and Fabio Valentim, the studio Una Barbara e Valentim unfolds an architecture deeply connected to place, conceived in São Paulo and extended with sensitivity across Brazil. Since 1996, Fernanda and Fabio have shared a professional journey that began with Una Arquitetos, shaping an architectural poetics committed to both collective and individual life through the built environment. In 2019, they consolidated this vision under their current name, UNA Barbara e Valentim.

São Paulo, one of the largest metropolises in the world, is not only their physical base but also the reflective heart of their work. From here, they have addressed diverse typologies: private residences, public facilities, and ephemeral spaces for art and exhibitions.

Their architecture is defined by a pursuit of harmony between form, function, and environment. Projects such as Casa Japi, with rammed earth walls and green roofs that enhance natural ventilation and strengthen the bond with the surrounding landscape, or the Pituba Reserve Beach Club, where discreet horizontality finds an immediate dialogue with the sea through shaded terraces and lightweight volumes, stand as tangible examples of this delicate integration. Read full biography.

Situated between two contrasting settings—a mountain opening and the dense shade of the forest—the house engages with both realities without imposing itself. Its form responds to this balance: an undulating black stone wall divides the space and, at the same time, organizes it. On one side, the area intended for sharing, flooded with light and sounds, open to the horizon. On the other, an introspective realm of twilight and seclusion, designed for rest, contemplation, and reading. 

Inspired by the seriemas—typical birds of the region that roam freely in the surroundings—the house takes its name and spirit. It was conceived not as a simple residence but as a space for pause. A place where architecture becomes a silent companion, where materials—black stone on the walls, white stone on the floor—convey continuity, permanence, and belonging to the place. 

In Casa Seriema, matter also narrates: stone—the sole protagonist material—shapes its essence. Stone that is white floor and dark wall, that is cave and viewpoint, that is silence and wind. The house is, as the studio itself says, time, river, mountain. It is architecture that breathes with the environment and allows itself to be permeated by emotion. 

Project: Casa Seriema.
Architecture: Tetro Arquitetura.
Architects: Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes e Igor Macedo
Location: Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Completed: 2024.
Built Area: 350 m².
Photography: Luisa Lage.
Collaborators: Bruno Bontempo, Bianca Carvalho, Bruna Maciel, Carolina Amaral, Saulo Saraiva, Sabrina Freitas.

Structure: Cálculo Concreto
.
Engineering: CA engenharia
.
Lighting : Iluminar.
Construction : Techno.
Carpentry, Windows, and Glass: Cinex.
Cladding, Ceramics, and Metals: Bel Lar.
Stone: Art Pedras.
Cabinetry, Kitchen Cabinets: Líder.
Marble: Mármores LTDA.
Climate Control: Grupo Orlando.
Furniture: São Romão.
Curtains: Ana Luisa Decorações.

Tetro Arquitetura

Behind Casa Seriema is Tetro Arquitetura, a studio based in Belo Horizonte founded by Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes, and Igor Macedo, whose work has become a reference both within and outside Brazil for its deeply contextual and emotional approach. 

Unlike other studios that pursue a recognizable visual identity, Tetro eschews a unique aesthetic signature. Each of their projects is a singular response to the place and the people who inhabit it. This deliberately non-canonical stance stems from active listening and an almost artistic sensitivity to the environment. It’s no coincidence that their houses resemble sculptural pieces or constructed poems more than conventional architectural objects. 

In their works, nature is not a backdrop but a foundational condition. Integration with the landscape, the use of characterful materials, and the valorization of emptiness are constants that traverse their trajectory. In many of them, such as Casa Açucena or Casa Rampa, vegetation enters the architectural space or shapes it. There is a profound respect for what already exists: the terrain, the light, the climate, the memory of the place. 

In a recent interview, the architects explain that they do not seek to produce architecture with immediate visual impact but one that “is discovered over time,” that reveals itself little by little, like an intimate conversation. This pursuit translates into spaces that move more than impress, that invite one to stay, to observe, to feel. 

Tetro’s trajectory has also been forged through resilience. In 2014, amid Brazil’s economic crisis, the studio redirected its activity from industrial projects to residential architecture. That transformation marked a turning point and allowed the development of a more authorial architectural identity, oriented toward the creation of unique residences that dialogue with their environment and inhabitants. 

Recognition soon followed. Awards such as the Golden Trezzini, the Architizer A+Awards, or the Lusófonos de Arquitectura endorse their innovative approach. But beyond accolades, what distinguishes Tetro is its ability to create architecture from emotion. Each work is a sensitive narrative, where form and matter respond to a deep intuition about inhabiting. 

Tetro Arquitetura does not design houses. It builds experiences. And in this way of understanding architecture—as a living art form capable of resonating emotionally—lies the key to its contemporary relevance. Casa Seriema is no exception. It is, perhaps, their finest poem.

Source: Tetro Arquiteture.