“Awakening the senses” sounds more like a phrase associated with a perfume; nevertheless it is the best way of describing the feelings produced by the BR House, by architects Marcio Kogan and Bruno Gomes, complemented with interior design by Diana Radomsuler and Marcio Kogan.

The house is conceived as a riddle in the middle of the forest, both molding itself around, and surrounding itself with, its forest environment. It is built using concrete, metal, wood, aluminum and glass and manages to merge into its forest surroundings, in the Petropolis region of Rio de Janeiro. The building is nevertheless remarkable in its own right, and achieves an aesthetic dialogue between its environment, its architecture and the onlooker.

While the entrance to the house appears to be on the ground floor, the actual entrance is on the second floor, and is accessed via a pathway that crosses a reflecting pool and ends up on a wooden deck; this approach replaces the more traditional staircase up to the front door.

The construction gives the impression of two monolithic cement knives that together watch over the first floor area; the facade is overlaid with a series of vertical wooden rods that in the bedroom accommodation can be opened completely and rolled back.

The first floor houses four suite-style bedrooms, the guest bathroom, kitchen, dining room and living room. The house also has a heated pool and a sauna with a picture window so you can enjoy the view. In the space intended for the hall, the visual separation between the exterior and the interior is reduced, while the facades of the bedrooms respect and protect the intimacy of this area.

When night comes we can see another perspective on this relationship between the exterior and interior; the darkness of the forest allows the light from the house to filter through the wooden structures of the rooms or to shine through the living room window, illuminating its surroundings; like a faintly poetic gesture in the midst of the Brazilian jungle.

This house shares several similarities with the Brazilian Casa de Vidro, designed by Lina Bo Bardi. Both houses reflect various Frank Lloyd Wright concepts, particularly in diluting the distinction between inside and outside; both houses are built on pillars, like pile dwellings, but Casa BR is supported on thick pillars like tree trunks, giving the impression that the house is floating above the tropical forest.

Casa BR is neither a shy building, nor is it an imitation; it confronts the senses with all the strength of its design and the impact of its construction materials. It does not try and blend in to the landscape but takes advantage of its setting in order to show itself off to best advantage, in an almost insolent way.