TETRO Arquitetura Splits a Bahia Hillside House into Four Blocks Beneath a Light-Filtering Wood Roof

Txai Bungalow sits on a high slope inside Txai Resorts in Itacaré, on the southern coast of Bahia, where the view toward the Atlantic spans nearly 180 degrees. TETRO Arquitetura, led by Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes and Igor Macedo, could have answered that panorama with one large glass box. Instead, they divided the 770 m² program into four separate blocks. Each block sits at its own level on the hillside, set between existing coconut palms.

The interesting part is not the view, which almost any building on this site would capture. What matters is how the architects handle the sun. Shade and coolness drove the design. The answer is a glass roof covered by a layer of biriba wood, which breaks direct light into shifting stripes. In the architects' framing, it behaves the way a palm canopy does. Around that one idea, the house becomes a loose cluster of shelters linked by decks, stairs and garden paths.

A Village Instead of a Villa

From the air, the strategy reads clearly. The central pavilion holds the living room, dining area, gourmet space and pool. Two guest blocks, each with two bedrooms, step down the slope. The main suite stands alone at the top of the site. Planted roof slabs cover the bedroom blocks, so the palms read first and the architecture second.

This fragmentation has a cost: you walk outdoors to get anywhere. In a warm resort setting, we think that is the right trade. The circulation becomes part of the experience. Each block gets privacy, and the cascading levels follow the topography instead of flattening it into one large platform.

A Roof That Behaves Like a Canopy

The social pavilion depends on its ceiling. Glass keeps the rain out, and the biriba wood layer above it controls what the sun does. The result is a field of narrow shadows that slides across rugs, sofas and floors over the day. The room never holds one fixed lighting condition, and that changing quality is the real material of the space.

The architects say they did not try to reproduce local vernacular literally. The roof shows what that means in practice. It does not copy a thatched hut. It takes the hut's job, filtered shade, and carries it out with a contemporary glazed assembly.

Eating in Striped Light

The dining and gourmet zones show the light effect most clearly. Long timber tables sit on hard floors that pick up every bar of shadow, and the stripes almost read as a drawn pattern. The interiors by David Bastos stay restrained: heavy wood, white counters, few objects. That restraint is correct, because the ceiling is already doing the decorating.

Notice the angular earth-toned walls next to the tables. Their slightly pinkish finish refers to Bahia's soil and cliffs. These walls give the open pavilion its only real sense of enclosure and weight against all that filtered air.

The Pool as Social Hinge

The pool sits inside the central volume rather than as a separate object in a lawn. Its infinity edge lines up with the palm canopy below and the sea beyond. The roof screen extends far enough that the loungers sit at the boundary between shade and full sun. You choose your exposure by moving a meter or two, which is how outdoor living in this climate actually works.

Rooms Turned Toward the Sea

The steep slope orients every main room toward the ocean, and the bedrooms take full advantage. Floor-to-ceiling glazing in wooden frames by Demuner opens onto the palm tops. Linen curtains and a branch headboard soften the edges. Smaller moments, such as a framed window above a row of painted terracotta vessels, show that the views are edited with some care. The house does not simply glaze every wall.

Plans and Drawings

The plans confirm the dispersed logic. The lower level pairs the guest suites and a gym near the parking area. The social level arranges living, kitchen and service rooms around a triangular pool. The upper plan isolates the small main suite block beside the dense lattice roof. The sections show how hard the slope is: buildings and pool step down beneath a rock face, and a long green roof rests on slender columns set into the hillside.

Why This Project Matters

Tropical luxury houses often treat climate as a technical problem for air conditioning and treat the view as their main design feature. Txai Bungalow reverses those priorities. Shade comes first, and the view follows from the site. The biriba screen over glass is a simple idea. It is carried through consistently enough that it shapes how every social space looks and feels at different hours.

The broader lesson is about scale on sensitive land. Four modest blocks with planted roofs, placed among existing palms, disturb the hillside far less than one large volume would. They also make a better place to live. For architects working on resort and coastal sites, this project shows that breaking a program apart can be both an environmental choice and a source of daily pleasure.

Txai Bungalow by TETRO Arquitetura (lead architects Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes and Igor Macedo), Itacaré, Brazil. Area: 770 m². Completed: 2025. Landscaping: Orsini. Interior design: David Bastos. Photography: Lupércio Fotografia.

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