Guaimbé is a Brazilian native plant, with broad leaves and aerial roots. The house that bears its name listens to that logic — it grows on the terrain, opens in layers, and breathes the humidity of the Atlantic Forest.
The brief came as a simple renovation: a couple of engineers asked for an update to a residence designed in the 1970s and inherited as a beach house in Guaratuba, on the coast of Paraná. Listening to the terrain, the original openings, and the Serra do Mar in the background led the project to another scale — a complete reconfiguration that preserved the original construction's affective memory and re-presented it in a contemporary language.
The architectural strategy was born from inverting the roof. The old cover gave way to a single inverted slope over the social area, doubling the ceiling height above living, dining and kitchen. In the private wing, lowered slabs return a domestic scale to the bedrooms. Cross ventilation, precise light cuts, and broad sliding doors that open completely dissolve the boundary between interior and garden — a gesture in dialogue with Brazilian modernism (Niemeyer, Artigas), translated through the discreet rigor of Paraná.
Materiality is tradition: rough travertine on the living room panel, a wooden slat treatment that extends from the façade to the social area ceiling, custom cumaru millwork, and soft-green Gouache porcelain tiles by Portobello in the master bathroom. At the front, a planted bed of guaimbés — the very plant that names the house — conceals the view from passersby and anchors the façade in the local flora. Slatted panels, exposed concrete ribs around the barbecue area, and ceramic cladding on the walls complete a palette that ages well under sun and salt air.
The result is a refuge a few steps from the sea — a beach house that prioritizes permanence over scenography. Completed in 2024, it was published in February 2025 on ArchDaily Brasil under editorial curation by Susanna Moreira, and as an eight-page editorial feature in Revista Casa Sul, 2025 edition, under the title "A garden a few steps from the sea". Photography by Matheus Kaplun (Janela Estúdio).
