Casa Box | Alan Chu e Cristiano Kato arquitetos

This project is located in Brazil, on São Sebastião’s island, on the north coast of the State of São Paulo. Known popularly as Ilhabela (beautiful island) it has an area of 336km2 and is the country’s largest sea island. 80% of its area is part of the Ilhabela’s National Park, the largest reserve of Atlantic Forest in São Paulo. In contrast to its 36 kilometers of beaches, Ilhabela is marked by mountains with peaks that reach 1,300 meters. The Box House is located on Santa Tereza’s mountain, at 100 meters above sea level, it is home of the caretaker of a 8,000m2 summer property. The site, next to two enormous rocks, already had the old caretaker’s house, one-story house with stone walls and clay roof tiles. The original house was too small, with little ventilation and almost no natural light, moreover, as it was very close to the street offered little privacy to its users. Because of its position in one of the main entrances of the property and the fact that the place is very exposed to the street there was a concern to create something simple but elegant in a way that it could be appreciated by those on the street without compromising the caretaker’s privacy. The new building has 2 floors, a white suspended box, where the bedroom is and it is possible to see the continent and the São Sebastião Channel. Under it, at street level, are the living room, kitchen and bathroom. The materials specification was guided by criteria such as availability, cost, and easy of execution, besides the possibility to combine them in a harmonious manner. The wood used on some doors and windows, staircase, shelves and furniture is leftover from material used to make scaffoldings and molds for the white box reinforced concrete structure. The sloping terrain conditions were used as a conductor lead for the concept, The 3.00 m x 5.00 m white box is supported on one side by an already existing retaining wall and on the other by a wall built with the same kind of rocks used in other local constructions. This movement shapes the other 3 spaces of the construction, the access yard, between the box and the retaining wall that curves following the parking lot ramp’s floor, the courtyard, between the box and the rock and the void created under the box, where the living room is. The impact caused by the image of concise volume, in comparison with the large rock’s amorphous exuberance, gives it a strange feeling.