Contemporary Mountain Home in Brazil by architect Ulisses Morato - extreme contrasts!

Oddly enough, this ultra-modern mountain home was designed and built using traditional techniques, by Brazil’s Morato Arquitetura. This contemporary mountain home employs time-honored methods and local materials with traditional, manual construction, and uses strong Portuguese colonial architecture influences. Built on three levels, the unique layout allows for a graceful yet functional use of the steeply sloping site. But you can’t complain about this particular site – ideally situated on a hilltop in Minas Gerais, Brazil, embraced by a vast valley and majestic mountain range, the house is too influenced by its surroundings. “The place chosen for the house was determined by the generous native landscape in the surroundings,” says architect Ulisses Morato – the man behind this amazing house design. “In this context, space definition privileged the possibilities of relationship of house users with the exuberant natural landscape. As for the relation of house-nature, we decided for the contrast, i.e. the radicalization of a geometric and rational design in opposition to natural organic shapes. Therefore, the ‘natural order’ and ‘cultural order’ are mutually distinguished and valued.” This modern mountain home was awarded the 10th Architecture Award promoted by IAB-MG (Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil – Minas Gerais) 2008, in the single houses category. Morato Arquitetura. photo credit: Daniel Mansur Best of interior and architecture