Articles by Clara Ott

The Saracura House is part of a group of row houses built in the 1940s in the Bexiga neighborhood of São Paulo. In resistance to the current real estate speculation in the neighborhood, the renovation of the house seeks to preserve its memory by maintaining the original facade and the existing courtyard configuration. The original structure of the house is revealed, and the historic retaining wall, characteristic of the existing topography of the neighborhood, appears as a visible element from different environments of the house.

The YR Pavilion is an unusual project. A couple – both art collectors – want to expand their garden with the aim of creating a small private park. To do this, they annex a new plot of land next to the existing house, which must include a “Folie”, a habitable sculpture composed of three installations: a massage room, a space for exercise, and a bathroom. The new object must be part of the existing sculpture collection, in addition to allowing for the respective functions.

At km 427 of Provincial Route No. 11, 10 km south of Villa Gesell and only 3 km from the Mar Azul forest, lies El Salvaje, a venture of maritime land, environmentally sustainable both for its low population density and the conditions established by its regulations in relation to environmental care. The regulations determine that all constructions respect the topography, vegetation, and fauna of the place: geography where the horizontality of the pampas plain is cut by the presence of sand dune cords, fixed by grasslands, which run perpendicular to the coast until they disappear into immense beaches.

The spatial and volumetric complexity of the project aren’t the result of a formal strategy, but instead of the materialization of the clients’ programmatic guidelines and constraints: four families with different requirements and sometimes contradictory demands. The resulting spaces and volumes, thus radiate the sensation of being a naturally grown body rooted in the ground, rather than an imposed construction controlled by the architects´ will.

The existing single fronted weatherboard cottage on the ‘Windsor Castle’ site had undergone multiple alterations over the last 10 years and was stretched beyond its limits for the growing family of 5. Located in the middle of the site with poor orientation and 4 neighbours, the existing building offered little opportunity to expand.

Chirp Café & Chat Space is the new cafe and restaurant that is situated in the 2^nd oldest city in Thailand. The UNESCO’s city, Ayutthaya. This old house turned into the café project portrays the mediation between the contemporary use of the building and its larger context.

The commission was to build a second home for the grandparents of the family, the idea is to share with all their children and grandchildren at the same time, the site is located on a privileged rocky point facing the sea about 300 kilometers north of Santiago, where It could be evidenced that the Chilean desert begins, the terrain presents a gentle slope and is covered by clusters of native vegetation type creeping scrub and cacti of important ecological value that are key to preserve.