Project Name: ART Residence

Location: Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Design Team: Jacobsen Arquitetura

Total Floor Area: 1,878 m²

Completion: 2024

Photography: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Feature: Jacobsen Arquitetura's "ART Residence" demonstrates how innovative tripartite spatial organization strategies and masterful cantilevered structure design philosophy fusion techniques can transform a residence on a beachfront plot into a contemporary tropical living sanctuary of natural integration and visual dematerialization.

This 1,878-square-meter residence dramatically stands on the Paraty coastline, presenting itself as a profound meditation on contemporary Brazilian residential lifestyle integration, passive climate control, and tropical architectural traditions fusion. Through carefully considered spatial organization and material selection, it creates a living experience that seamlessly weaves functionality with environmental comfort.

The project's most compelling design feature lies in its fundamental response and reimagining of the site's natural characteristics. Confronting numerous original and preserved trees on the land, the architects achieved a dematerialization effect with precise orthogonal facade lines amid nature's tortuous and organic movements. This design strategy creates continuous dialogue between architecture and natural environment, achieving perfect balance between geometric clarity and organic fluidity.

Jacobsen Arquitetura's design language fluently expresses contemporary tropical architectural vernacular, employing strategic spatial axes and material applications to redefine beachfront living experiences. From the grand entrance hall, three main axes elegantly unfold: to the right are fully integrated social areas, including living room, dining room, and gourmet area, completely integrated with the veranda through large glass panels; to the left are the family room, gym, and sauna, opening onto the pool and extensive lawn running down to the sea; at the clients' request, an alfresco area was designed on the lawn, creating a pleasant outdoor dining space for the family. This bold integration strategy not only adds functionality to spaces but cleverly accommodates the complex demands of multifunctional family life.

Most remarkably, the architects create continuous spatial experiences between different floors through clever manipulation of second-floor layouts and vertical visual connections. To maximize views of the sea and mountains, the second floor accommodates three axes of suite clusters: one for the couple, the second for children, and the third for guests. Family suites are connected by a generous balcony from which one can observe activities on the lawn and the ocean horizon, while the guest rooms volume becomes the cantilever of the porte-cochère, supported by a metal lattice structure, creating an atmosphere where functionality and structural expression are perfectly combined.

Material strategy continues this harmonious coexistence design philosophy between architecture and environment. The choice of lighter wood-tone ceiling creates an interesting contrast with the darker shades of the facade, both blocking climate elements and maintaining visual warmth. Double eaves provide greater protection from the elements, while careful landscaping creates areas for preserving old trees on the property. Signed furniture, designer pieces, and works of art make up the decor, carefully curated by the office in conjunction with the clients, ensuring thermally comfortable living environments, perfectly suited for family life and art collection display.

Design Team: Jacobsen Arquitetura, founded in Rio de Janeiro, has emerged as one of Latin America's most distinguished architecture and interior design studios, guided by founding partner Paulo Jacobsen's forty-five-year legacy and now led by partners Paulo Jacobsen and Bernardo Jacobsen. The firm's design philosophy centers on a distinctive tropical architecture approach that integrates contemporary aesthetics with Brazil's colonial and indigenous architectural heritage, while maintaining deep respect for modernist principles.

Operating from offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Lisbon, the studio has expanded its reach globally across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Under the direction of Design Director Marcelo Vessoni and specialized managers including Marcela Siniauskas, Pedro Junqueira, and Magu Marinelli, the firm delivers comprehensive architectural and interior design solutions ranging from private residences to cultural institutions. Bernardo Jacobsen's international professional experience in Europe and Japan has been instrumental in this global expansion.

The studio's design methodology emphasizes site-specific responses, natural material integration, and seamless indoor-outdoor spatial relationships. Through the architectural object, the studio spatially elaborates concepts such as fluidity, transparency, luminosity, and structural lightness, in pursuit of the true concept of sustainability. This approach achieved international recognition with the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Art, selected among the 100 most important architectural designs globally by Architecture Now and awarded the Architizer A+ Awards Public Choice in the museum category in 2014, receiving the Green Building Council LEED seal in the silver category the same year, and selected for the Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial in 2017.

Beyond practice, through commitment to complete integration between architecture and natural environment, application of local climatic conditions adaptability and international design excellence, and time-tested modernist architectural wisdom, Jacobsen Arquitetura has established itself as a significant contributor to contemporary Brazilian architectural discourse, creating architectural works that are both environmentally responsive and embrace global design vision. The firm adheres to the design principle that "architecture must be closely related to the client's personality and way of life, in complete harmony with the surroundings in a timeless manner, with the idea that architecture disappears in the landscape," occupying a unique position within Brazilian and international architectural landscapes, focusing on creating unpretentious yet profound spatial experiences.