"House on the stone" values natural materials, integration, and vegetation in RJ

The 1,800m² plot was surrounded by lush vegetation, featured a massive natural stone on one side, and had a stream cutting through the back of the lot. The perfect place for a young family from Rio de Janeiro to build an urban retreat with a mountain home feel and start a new lifestyle, more connected to nature. For the construction of the so-called "Casa na Pedra", the architects Thiago Morsch and Michele Wilkinson, from Thimi Arquitetura and the CASACOR Rio team, took advantage of the slight slope of the land and designed a single-story, compact house, but with generous spaces to receive friends and enjoy moments with family – just as the couple of owners, an administrator and a lawyer, wanted. "They lived in a small apartment, but wanted to build their first house from scratch and dreamed of a functional, contemporary home surrounded by greenery, a true breath of fresh air within the city," says Thiago.

Inspiration at CASACOR Rio

The inspiration for "Casa na Pedra" came from another project of the duo: a house built at CASACOR Rio 2021, marked by the use of natural materials, organic textures, and a fluid relationship between the interior and exterior. These characteristics were preserved in this house – built with a lightweight metal structure, featuring large glass panels that open to the greenery and a social area that seems to float above the land. "From this idea of fluid architecture, which blurs the lines between inside and outside, we created a versatile and welcoming floor plan designed to accompany the cycles of family life," explains Michele.

No wonder the house has won over the audiovisual market and is occasionally rented out for productions. It has been used as a location for the soap opera "Mania de Você" (TV Globo) and as a setting for an appliance commercial. Still, it remains as the dream refuge of its inhabitants.

Division between the projects

The central area consists of a living room and kitchen integrated with a central island that serves as the heart of the house. There is almost no presence of masonry in the space, there are only two walls: the one for the TV, clad in Moledo stone; and one at the back, where the kitchen cabinetry was installed – the same used in CASACOR Rio! The veranda follows the same flooring, which gives a sense of continuity and further expands the space, having both facades clad in glass, with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors in metalwork. The transition between the social and intimate volumes is made by a tree that was already on the land and was preserved. The care for the surroundings and nature is constant throughout the project. Another example of this is the back veranda, which connects directly with a green wall and a massive rock, integrating the interior with the landscape in an almost poetic way. The couple's suite is the last room of the house and has a view of the stream and a veranda entirely clad in wood. The children – a boy of 8 years and a baby – got a canadian suite with a bathroom that is also used as a social bathroom. Finally, an existing annex on the land was transformed into a service area, with laundry, storage, bathroom, and internal access through the house. The gourmet area was created in the part below the main suite, taking advantage of the slope of the land.