Garret House is a minimalist residence located in São Paulo, Brazil, designed by Felipe Hess Arquitetos. The renovation takes a subtractive approach to an existing house, reorganizing its relationship with natural light through selective removals and the insertion of skylights along the vertical circulation axis. Rather than expanding or replacing, the intervention carves voids and cut-outs that redefine the interior atmosphere while preserving the constructive logic of the original structure. The result is a house that registers the movement of the sun throughout the day, its circulation spaces functioning as calibrated light wells that shift in character from morning to evening.
The strategy operates differently across the two floors. On the ground level, the house opens decisively toward the garden through generous apertures that dissolve the boundary between interior and exterior. Travertine flooring extends from the entry sequence into the landscape, where irregular stone pavers trace a path through groundcover toward a circular pool. On the upper floor, where the more intimate areas of the program are located, the approach inverts. Openings are protected by punctual canopies positioned along the facade, controlling direct light incidence and preserving privacy. These projecting shelves give the exterior its distinctive sculptural quality, casting deep shadows across the smooth plaster surfaces and lending the elevations a rhythm that reads as both functional and compositional.
Warm white plaster covers walls and ceilings in continuous, softly modulated surfaces, while oak flooring and stair treads introduce a tonal warmth that intensifies under the skylights above the stair. Vertical wood slat doors in a deep reddish tone punctuate the composition at the entry and upper facade, their saturated color operating as the sole chromatic accent against the neutral field. A travertine volume suspended within the stairwell functions as a sculptural object, its veined surface catching light from above. The fireplace in the living room, rendered as a tapering plastered hood over a bench of pale terracotta tile, recalls the elemental hearths of Mediterranean vernacular building while remaining entirely abstract in its geometry.
