Designed in 2013 by Arthur Casas, this inspiring contemporary residence is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Description
In Rio de Janeiro there is no choice: one has to celebrate the landscape and that is the case of Casa AL. It is a project intimately conceived with a long time client and friend. Its conception started with the selection of the plot. The triangular shaped area was surrounded by high walls that left the future owner quite skeptical about the real possibilities of reaching the splendid views towards Gavea Rock and the Atlantic. For him to exchange his cozy apartment for a house in São Conrado, it was necessary to prove that the architecture could transform the apparent disadvantage of the steep terrain and the strong presence of the neighbors into the starting point of an exceptional project that lifts itself to reach the sea. A bachelor with an intense social life, the young entrepreneur was very open when he proposed a simple program: a space for hosting friends and sharing with them the landscape; another for having total privacy
and contemplating the landscape. The first gesture consisted of proposing a large, floating, horizontal volume, above the neighbors? walls and roofs. In this space we placed all social activities, whereas guestrooms and service were placed on the ground floor and the private apartment, on the second floor.
The plan tried to work with the urban scale of the street by transforming the walls of the house itse...