Casa Modico | Atelier Branco

In the north-east of Brasil, on the shore of São Miguel do Gostoso supported by softest things: the wind and the clouds, rises casa Modico, one of the recent and characteristic projects by Atelier Branco.

The influence of the land and its position connected to the wind has developed in the client and creator the will to imagine a proper response to local architectural traditions. Therefore the building is respectful of the memory in terms of construction technology, it’s ecologically sustainable and is proposed as a reference point for the cultural anthropology of the landscape.

Observing the longitudinal section you perceive the willing of Atelier Branco to create natural ventilation cruising every space of the house. Indeed the separations between the common spaces and the privates one are defined by a composition of bricks that creates a filter between the spaces and facilitates the ventilation, that starts from wide side openings. The lightness in living these spaces is marked by the rhythm of the dance of the air, that spreads from a precise architectural module rhythmic and shaped by the movement of the wind.

Lightness has always been associated with the art of dance. Yet even this art, born from the exuberant spirit, is very connected symbolically to its opposite, that is the discipline and precision of the gesture. Given the topographic characteristics of the site, is the section to determine the resolution of the project, two volumes with the same architectural form located on a flat landscape, elevated by one meter above the sea level. To emphasize the absence of hierarchy between the two sides the language in which the layout of the house is expressed is the pure symmetry.

In the project are defined two principal axes, the first one cuts perpendicularly the ocean and connects all the common areas defining the sequence of the house and the second one parallel to the waters of the ocean that benefits the natural resources for the ventilation, either as emptiness or as a filter.

Four doors of different sizes introduce into each common area. At the arrival we find the smallest as the entrance to the house. Two identical doors open onto the interior patio, where on one side we find a long wooden table of 7 m and on the other side an identical door welcomes us in the living room with just a piece of furniture: a sofa in front of the ocean. A 3x3m door lets us on the wooden deck, 80 sqm of a stage on the beach.

Four identical rooms develop along with this system, independent from the sequence of the house. In these rooms, the inside-outside view is filtered by a wall of horizontal wooden slats that produces a kind of fade in the vibration of light that keeps the contact with the natural element. Here as well the simplicity of form and colors: the balance of the walls, the natural wood of the blinds and the grey of the concrete floor are a quality that comes through a path and a project that is not simple, which indeed requires maturity, wisdom and courage. The ability to remove, to clear to get to the essentiality. Simplicity is clarity. Clarity is elegance, substance, honesty and therefore moral beauty.

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Project title: Casa Modico
Location São Miguel do Gostoso, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Design year(s): from September 2017 to May 2018
Construction year(s): from June 2018 to March 2019
Architect(s) or architectural firm(s): Atelier Branco Arquitetura
Principal(s) in charge: Matteo Arnone and Pep Pons
Client(s): Private Residence
Consultants:
Landscape Design: Atelier Branco & Julieta Fialho
Program: Private residence
Site area: 1.000 sqm
Building area: 160sqm
Total floor area: 300sqm

Pictures: Federico Cairoli (2020)