After her resounding success of her in Casa Cor’s 2008 edition, Fernanda Marques now presents her 2009 version of her Loft 24/7. This time, in the form of a spacious bungalow, of about 250m², where nature plays much more than a mere supporting role: one just has to note the intense use of daylight. The use of materials in their rough state. Its total openness to the outside.
“Being inside feeling like one is outside. I believe that to be a key issue in understanding the interior design being produced today. In times when environmental awareness is growing, and, of course, also the desire to be close to nature”, explains the architect, who places her design somewhere in between a country villa and a modernist home designed by one of her masters, German architect Mies van der Rohe.
Combined with rough stone walls and limestone floors, steel and glass are not present just by chance. Altogether, the house is 180m², linked by a wooden deck which projects the house out beyond its internal boundaries. A kind of interface between the interior and the outer environment, glazed walls and ceilings ensure spatial continuity: one of the hallmarks of Fernanda Marques’s designs.
No less impacting, the all-white interior is furnished with pieces made only from sustainably obtained raw materials and accented by a few feature pieces: in the kitchen, for instance, the appliances are integrated to a steel panel that projects up to the roof, whereas a monolith, which serves as a breakfast counter, imprints the space with a rustic, almost rugged tone.
In the living-room, the niches in the cabinetry and bookcases also have their little gems: on one side, the organic glass objects by US glass artist Jeff Zimmerman – one of the architect’s favourite artists, displaying his art in Brazil for the first time by invitation of Fernanda. On the other side, a very special selection of objects, handpicked for the space by antiquarian Beto Altílio.
Among the Florense launches, created especially for the space, high-gloss cabinetry, all equipped with coloured glass and automated drawers. Pieces, according to Fernanda, which are ideal for people who demand quality. “But who also have no time to waste”.