FGMF's Casa da rua Escócia: A São Paulo House Wrapped Around a Sub-Tropical Garden

In a verdant area of São Paulo, local studio FGMF Arquitetos has completed Casa da rua Escócia, a residence that prioritizes the outdoors. The house, described by the architects as 'an exercise in restraint,' wraps around its site, presenting a boundary wall to neighbors while opening up to a slim garden plot. The façade is clad in wood with flush-fitting shutters that reveal sliding glazing. The ground floor can be fully opened to the garden, with cantilevered upper levels providing shade, evoking tree canopies. The interior features a double-height living room bisected by a first-floor bridge, a sunken media room, and a terrace with barbeque and dining areas. The structure combines poured concrete and steel frame, with exposed concrete at boundaries and a timber-clad steel structure for the first floor. FGMF, founded by Lourenço Gimenes, Rodrigo Marcondes Ferraz, and Fernando Forte, emphasizes the house's modest footprint but remarkable spatial richness, where architecture dissolves into landscape. The project was featured in Wallpaper* magazine, with photography by Victor Lucena.