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A See-Through Artist’s House in the Brazilian Rainforest

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A sweetly poetic air infuses this charming garden house with parallel walls of glass in the jungle outside Rio de Janeiro.

To preserve the 100 year old trees on the site, a narrow floorplan was created.

Making it completely transparent kept the towering rainforest in sight.

Within the long narrow plan, a slit in the roof down the center brings an everchanging beam of sunlight into the house – like a sunbeam in a forest clearing.

The clients, the granddaughter of great architect Sergio Bernardes and a Colombian artist, had their own vision for architect Carla Juaçaba.

While wildly romantic and ethereal, the house is nevertheless simply constructed of the most sturdy industrial materials, corrugated metal and glass, and is raised above ground to allow for occasional flooding.

A tall Jacarandah tree drops its pink blossoms all around the secretive artists’ retreat.

Its kitchen is a simple peasant’s kitchen with pots and pans all arrayed in plain sight.

The narrow sliver of house can be fully opened all along both sides, so that the central living room becomes an open sided jungle garden pavilion.

The island is constructed of durable concrete and set on a stone floor.

The kitchen/living room is in the center of the simple plan, with a private bedroom and bathroom at each end.

Sometimes the simplest plans are the most beautiful.

In this case — less really is more.