Mountain House Architecture in Brazil: Araucarias House by ARKITITO Arquitetura

Embracing Nature Through Design in Campos do Jordão

Located in the lush mountainous landscape of Campos do Jordão, Brazil, the Araucarias House by ARKITITO Arquitetura is a refined example of mountain house architecture in Brazil that merges contemporary living with ecological sensitivity. Surrounded by Araucarias and pines, the design prioritizes integration with the natural topography and forest environment, preserving native vegetation and enhancing the occupants’ experience of the site’s serenity and climate.

Designed as a vacation retreat, the project includes two independent volumes—a main house and a guest house—strategically positioned to maintain the site’s original terrain while creating private outdoor pockets. These volumes are unified through a glazed metal-roofed entrance hall that allows natural light to pour into the interiors, creating a visual rhythm between structure and landscape.

Spatial Organization and Climatic Adaptation

Each house features two zones: social areas with open-plan living and kitchen spaces, and private zones comprising two bedrooms. The architects approached the design with the region’s climatic challenges in mind, particularly cold temperatures and high soil humidity. As a result, both structures are elevated slightly above the ground to avoid direct contact with moisture.

The structural system incorporates concrete blocks and vermiculite-insulated walls, ensuring thermal efficiency and acoustic comfort. The roofing strategy varies across functions—flat slabs in private zones allow for technical maintenance, while pitched metal roofs in social areas wrap down the walls, increasing insulation and architectural expression.

Materiality Rooted in Local Context

Material choices throughout the house reflect durability, low maintenance, and sensitivity to the setting. Exterior walls are finished in dark tones to contrast with the verdant environment, while interiors maintain a muted palette: polished cement floors, exposed black iron elements, white plaster walls, and yellow burnished cement in bathrooms. Skylights with high-resistance glass are integrated into bathrooms, protecting interiors from falling pinecones and introducing generous natural light.

Marine plywood defines the home’s carpentry—doors, furniture, and lighting coves—selected for its moisture resistance and warm aesthetic. Wooden beams and custom headboards echo this material consistency, reinforcing a cohesive and tactile spatial experience.

A Seamless Connection Between Indoors and Outdoors

The project excels in fostering a continuous dialogue between interior living spaces and the surrounding landscape. Large glazed openings open the social zones to external concrete decks, turning each façade into an invitation to the forest. Window projections become spaces for contemplation or decoration, enriching the relationship between occupants and nature.

The landscape design further amplifies this intent. Native plants line the periphery, fostering biodiversity and attracting resilient local fauna. The central garden remains unprogrammed, offering flexibility for the inhabitants while celebrating the untouched quality of the terrain.

A Contemporary Mountain Home that Respects its Roots

The Araucarias House exemplifies a holistic approach to mountain house architecture in Brazil, where contextual understanding, material integrity, and spatial clarity come together in a quiet, thoughtful design. It is a house that doesn’t impose itself on its site but rather grows from it—elevated not only in structure but in concept, atmosphere, and environmental responsibility.

ARKITITO Arquitetura’s intervention is a celebration of local vegetation, seasonal climate, and tactile materiality, creating a space where retreat meets resonance. In every detail, from structure to finish, the house honors its mountain setting and offers its inhabitants a peaceful dialogue between architecture and nature.

All the photographs are works of Andrea Soares