HOUSES 101 | Bahia House

   
    The Bahia House in Salvador, Brazil is an amazing piece of contemporary design.  Using materials that make you really feel like you are in a jungle, architect Marcio Kogan, of Studio MK27, put together the building with breeze.  Bahia is a state in the northeast part of the country, and the climate is hot and humid all
 year-round.  Most of the walls are actually Arabic screens.  (Wow.  That would be awesome to live there.)

    Archrecord said, "The fourth side, which faces the street, is an open volume framed by the overhanging roof that rests atop the opposing stone walls, and by a simple floor-to-ceiling mashrabiya (an Arabic screen) extending the 67-foot-long elevation. The screens can be folded in accordion fashion to reveal a second layer of 8-foot, 10-inch-high glass panels, which also slide completely out of the way."

    The outside patio looks amazing.  It has a very nice style through-and-through.  I love how they incorporated the wooden chairs and the way they are positioned on the patio.  Archrecord said that the house is not by the sea, but in a dense, forest like area.  Since the house is open and very jungle-like with its natural surroundings, a common guest is seen once and awhile, wandering around.  This guest is the little sagui monkeys from a zoo nearby.  They are attracted most likely by the 100-year-old mango trees.  (Mmm...tasty!)

    The living rooms and ceilings use a special wood trick by "rip-cutting every piece with the same narrow width."  This is a "modern patchwork" in wood design.  I also love how the house is open to nature and the outdoors are seemly inside the home.  I bet the days are cool and the nights are warm in the house, considering that the climate is steady and doesn't drop down in the nights and sky-rocket in the day. 

    Here is the overall layout and floor plan of the Bahia House.  As you know, the house is very spacious, letting the outdoors, indoors.  (If you like that of course, I most certainly would)  Archrecord, near the end, goes on to say, "The mango trees shade the hot summer sun. The ambience, even inside, is of a lazy veranda. Time slows to a Bahian pace. There is a Bahian custom, to varandar — to take a leisurely stroll along the beach, stopping at each and every house’s veranda to chat with neighbors. Such a verb could have been created only in Bahia, as Kogan’s house superbly demonstrates."  This house is one of my favorite kind of styles.  By letting the outdoors, indoors, it lets the client feel free, open, and lets them smell the fresh air of Salvador, Brazil, and its lush rain forest.  MORE HOUSES 101 COMING SOON!




*All pictures and information from archrecord.construction.com*