campana brothers sao paulo house wrapped in palm fibers

distinctively wrapped with in a shaggy layer of palm fibers, brazilian design-duo of estudio campana realized their first residential project based in the leafy jardim paulista neighborhood of são paulo.

all the greenery on the original site were retained including a mango and pitanga, and six erythrina coral trees
all images © leonardo finotti

the private commission sees estudio campana applying their recognized aesthetic of employing locally-sourced materials and traditional techniques. the clients requested for a property that would blend nature with the built environment, while retaining the privacy of the inhabitants. the natural palm fiber ‘piassava’ stems from the northeast region of brazil and simultaneously functions as a tropical heat shield. outside, the garden is planted with native cylindrical snake greenery alongside other indigenous brazilian flora and fauna.

a leather wrapped bookshelf runs all the way up the house

the plot is long and narrow, therefore the solution was to build upwards. the four floors capitalize on sunlight, with the structure appears seemingly floating and framed by walls of painted green and climbing shrubbery. internally, the lowest floor accommodates the garage, meanwhile the bedrooms are organized on the second and third; the the master suite embedded with a transparent roof to ‘catch the sunlight’. furthermore, at the core of the home, a floor-to-ceiling wooden bookcase wrapped in leather acts as a distinctive focus of the interior.

humberto campana comments that the bookcase was ‘made of pieces of leather hand-glued one by one over a wood structure. we wanted to create something like a vegetable that goes from outside of the house to the inside’. fernando campana continues: ‘like a vegetable that invades the house. the house is very clean, so we created those elements to bring strong, organic emotion into the house and the facade’.

the internal programs all have a close connection to the greenery outside