by Isabel Duprat

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At the end of the nineties, Claudio Bernardes designed this house in São Paulo with a country feel and a seaside flavor, causing strangeness to the architecture of São Paulo. With a carioca breath of relaxation, this terraced residence turned sprawling onto the generous land, bringing a sense of serenity to the afflicted and complex daily life in the city.

 

Regularly, in our projects, we come across a blank page and numerous resources at our disposal to fill it. When the possibilities are many and the limitations few, everything is more difficult, contrary to what it seems. We must not give in to the impulse to overload this page with superimposed and often redundant elements. Simplicity, probably, or most of the time, can be the best way and so it is essential to understand the atmosphere of the environment.

 

Every place has an aptitude and a character. I always try to understand for the space where I’ll be working and creating what is its essence, or eventually decipher why it doesn't cause emotion, what are the qualities, the mysteries, the disharmonies, the impracticalities or its trump card. From these perceptions emerges the measure of things and the origin of a good place.

 

The vocation of this land signaled for me a clear path to make this garden a park, calm and without excesses.

 

A clay court was a requirement for the expert player client. The chosen trees and palms that I added to the few existing trees were positioned as if they were ancient inhabitants on a walkable lawn, which is the great path. Bauhinias, Cassia leptophila, Libidibia ferrea, myrindibas, Handroanthus impetiginosus, Handroanthus heptaphyllus and Howenia dulcis surround the property softening the sharp edges of its borders. Groups of Livistona chinensis and seafortia palms draw vertical lines with their round trunks pacing the spacious lawn and, together with some trees here and there, draw areas of sun and shade creating meandering depths.

 

Many years later, in 2015, the house would undergo an adjustment and renovation of facilities and I was called to build the new pool, which would now serve for swimming.

 

The insertion of a 25-meter-long swimming pool in the plot had its position defined by the seafortia palms that we had previously planted. I designed a lane with a submerged triangular bench resulting in a trapeze. For the lining I chose a rustic Minas granite with rectangular pieces measuring 30 cm by 1 m, the largest possible. This granite lends a beautiful color to the water and the freshness of a fountain, mimicking well with the moledo stone that covers the base of the house. The pool deck joins the stairs that lead to the house as if they were a single floor.

 

In this mature garden, more than 20 years later, the same inhabitants coexist very at ease, with countless birds, rabbits and dogs, with the same unpretentiousness.