Putting down roots in the Brazilian forest

Engineer Breno Bulus had long coveted his neighbour’s land, with its ancient forest and gardens in prime position overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s Pedra da Gávea mountain and the capital’s sparkling coastline. Situated in Itanhanga, 20km west of Rio, when the plot came up for sale in 2020, Breno snapped it up. Two years later, he and his wife, Priscilla, a gynaecologist, and their children, Antônia, 12, and Nuno, 8, moved into their purpose-built Scandinavian-inspired cabin and tropical landscaped garden.

“I had always dreamed of living on a farm and this piece of land was our chance to live in a country house in the middle of the city,” says Breno, owner of the footwear chain Outer and, inspired by his new garden, an super-comfortable outdoor furniture range, Memo. With the help of architects Bel Lobo and Mariana Travassos (Be.Bo Arquitetura) who had designed the Outer shops, Breno wanted to create “a forest in the middle of an urban environment and to live within it. The idea was to create a very natural and primitive-looking garden and a very contemporary house. I like the contrast between the organic and natural and the urban and straight.”

The living spaces, kitchen and three bedrooms look on to the garden. “The house has lots of glass and intense light,” says Breno. “There’s total integration with nature and an invitation to enjoy the outdoors, both day and night.”

The house is constructed from cement planks, fashioned with grooves and painted in a graphite pigment to resemble rustic logs. Inside, the walls are lined with pine to bring warmth and colour, complemented by plywood ceilings. The soothing cabin aesthetic is offset by carefully positioned artefacts and household objects, with Priscilla’s mother playing a key part in the visual curation of everything from a red food mixer to a fruit bowl.

But the most used piece of furniture in the house is the wooden dining table, says Breno, pale pendant lights above and glass doors at either end leading to the “enchanted forest” that surrounds the dwelling. “I love eating with the family and watching the lake in the background,” he adds. Japanese fish share the lake with two tiger turtles and the Brazilian water lily Vitória-Régia. “I love it when its flowers appear in the middle of the lake. They only last a few days.”

Between the dining table and living area, a small table sits against grey concrete slats with a wood-like texture. Curios are artfully displayed, including a pair of ceramic hands sculpted by Breno’s father-in-law – a doctor as well as an artist in his spare time. Two paintings hanging on the wall above continue the monochrome theme, one a chair, the other abstract objects – stones, perhaps –, and speak to the clean lines and the softer ones at play.

The wall, like this curated nook, serves to break up the space. “The house was designed in a linear projection,” explains Breno. “To break the monotony, the architects designed it as if there were two staircases that connect through this space with the glass-enclosed dining table. This wall functions as the facade of one of the houses, despite being indoors.”

Abstract paintings that again play with lines and interstices fill the walls above the unfussy white sofa in the living room, most of them painted by Breno. Two huge letters spelling out “OK” and a red graphic image with the words “OPTIMISTIC” set a mellow tone, the white cowhide rug on the floor and the cushioned bench area inviting you to relax and enjoy the white and the light. It’s a mood that continues in the hall where a mounted bicycle painted white to match the canvas, picked up in a local market, rests easy on the white wall. A bold, bright red geometric sculpture bench by Brazilian designer Marcos Bravo holds its own against the greenery outside, disrupting another study in white: a second white sofa, more abstract linear paintings, another letter (a giant capital N) on the wall. Here, again keeping things lively, a bespoke black and white geometric rug works an Escher vibe.

Serenity rules again in Breno and Priscilla’s bedroom, shades of blue in dialogue with the ocean, the plywood ceiling, wooden wardrobes, taupe linen bed throws meshing in turn, with nature in all its abundance visible out on the deck. “The idea behind the design is that from the inside of the house you see plants everywhere, and nothing else.”

The children’s bedrooms, painted in shades of green to maintain that outside-in connection, have the same huge glass doors, white muslin curtains, no attempt to block out the light, which is the star of this immersive home. Even the bathrooms, with their plants, surround-plywood or planes of stone, gesture to the natural world that Breno and his family revere as both playground and sustaining source.

The house is designed to get everybody outside, whatever the weather. “I’m fascinated by nature and all its textures,” says Breno. “The idea with the swimming pool was for it to blend into the environment; the choice of paving brings aspects of a natural lake to it.”

But what he especially loves is the fire pit. “The campfire corner is what I like most about the house,” he says. “I wanted it long before the project for this house even began. I gather friends around it, its magic even more powerful on cold days… It’s just such a shame that cold days are so rare in Rio.”