Rio de Janeiro is a lively, bustling, crowded city with incredible views of Guanabara Bay and lush, tree-covered hills all around. Plots of land in desirable locations, like banks above the beaches, are hard to come by here. If you do manage to snag a prime location, you’re richly rewarded.

A family looking for a luxurious contemporary beach house did just that, but the building site was incredibly narrow. They turned to Brazilian firm Mareines Arquitetura to find a creative solution that would satisfy all their desires, and then some. What the firm produced is truly spectacular: a sculptural residence they call “Wave House.”
Set on a “granite monolith” between the busy neighborhoods of São Conrado and Barra da Tijuca, the home is built to the very edges of the plot, getting what might be a little uncomfortably close for the neighbors on either side. The architects focused the bulk of their attention on the back end of the house, which faces the water. And as you can see, a big part of their vision includes one of the most unusual roof designs we’ve ever seen.
“The inspiration: it is like the house was a ship seeking for the horizon line. And these waves were the inspiration to the undulating design for the roof that protects the house from Rio’s inclement sun. The plot where we should design the house has [the] exceptional quality of facing the ocean in the middle of Rio de Janeiro. More precisely 180 feet above se...