GT House by Studio Guilherme Torres
Studio Guilherme Torres designed the GT House in Londrina, Brazil.
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The young Brazilian architect Guilherme Torres chose to live in a small studio in Londrina, Brazil. The place would lodge an artist’s painting atelier and was under redecoration for over 10 years by the architect himself. The present project came to life due to several problems found in the building such as electricity mains and rewiring, wall cracks and seepage. Within a month, all wall coatings were removed and rebuilt whilst the architect decided to build a brick table and couch. “As a furniture designer, I decided to follow an opposite thread to what I usually do and create something permanent, stable”, says the architect.
Not only is the table used to hold books and collections but it is also a place to work and eat at, while the couch stands from wall to wall and has two black fabric mattresses. The cushions were made with fabric cutouts with patterns designed by the stylist Adriana Barra to Micasa, São Paulo’s design temple. The kitchen was compressed in a 1.40m wide by 3m long space. The concrete floor was coated with rubber so as to avoid oil stains while the wall received plotage images inspired in Arabic mosaic, designed by the architect himself.
The resident’s bedroom bears resemblance to a loft, with a warmer atmosphere compared to the rest of the house due to the exposed brick wall at the top of the bed. The electrical wiring system becomes more evident in the guest’s bedroom, located in a mezzanine floor above the living-room. The design was inspired by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, a Brazilian architect who won the Pritzker prize in 2006 and famous for exploring the Brutalist Architecture, in which the architecture functional mechanisms such as hydraulic and electrical pipes are at sight. Modern and avant-garde, the whole building cost approximately U$ 6,000.00 and the low cost is due to its simplicity in architectural solutions.
Visit the Studio Guilherme Torres website – here.
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Savio Fernandes on 08 Oct 2010 at 9:32 am #
muito criativo. genial. parabens ao autor
very criative. congrats for the author
Jat on 08 Oct 2010 at 9:54 am #
The conduit electrical piping running everywhere doesn’t work (for me).
Jaque on 08 Oct 2010 at 11:14 am #
I already saw some pictures this place in a Brazilian magazine
, and I’m in love for this house/studio, it is so perfect!
TW on 08 Oct 2010 at 4:25 pm #
This all works tremendously well.
The spaces and the interior decoration are exactly what I would call contemporary design.
@design_moveis on 08 Oct 2010 at 5:48 pm #
O Guilherme tem bom gosto e pensa muito além. O cara é designer de móveis e não tem móveis na casa dele? Perfeito!
Jimw on 08 Oct 2010 at 9:02 pm #
Thoughtful, innovative, practical, restrained, enlightened, purposeful, inspired, livable, and enduring. It is work like this that bridges time. It will be as conceptually valid in twenty years as it is today. The hallmarks of an insightful design.
Scotty on 08 Oct 2010 at 9:12 pm #
Quite a cool, contemporary place.
Can anyone please tell me who makes the little dog sculptures and where they might be available?
jane on 08 Oct 2010 at 10:17 pm #
w o w
perfect
Tee on 09 Oct 2010 at 7:35 am #
so perfection is possible then..?
wouldn’t change a thing, and I’m a very picky person.
BMG on 09 Oct 2010 at 1:51 pm #
Dogs are designed by Eero Aarnio for Magis.
Available in Australia through http://www.top3.com.au
Guess you will be able to find them anywhere else with a quick search
mootymoo on 10 Oct 2010 at 9:30 pm #
It’s impossible to ignore the psychology of this. That wardrobe, with it’s rows of identical white and black T-shirts and shoes. At one time, to be uptight, overly controlling and obsessive was the opposite of cool. Things have changed, 1 supposes.
But anyway bravo, this is superfun, this playing with colour and monochrome [camouflage?]and the converse, exposure of infrastructure that’s normally hidden. The colours and shapes are nice.
Now, I’m waiting for a friend to bring over their fleasy dog or cat for a stay mwa hahaha.
Oh and good luck getting out the book or DVD you want next time. Better super-glue those together and keep the real ones in a secret room that looks conventional but is functional
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mootymoo on 10 Oct 2010 at 9:35 pm #
… o and this is the first time I’ve ever been asked to regard a naked brick wall as imparting warmth. Just looking at that makes me feel like moving to some equatorial place where the primary building material is palm fronds.
mootymoo on 10 Oct 2010 at 9:50 pm #
Hugely pretentious, but that’s nothing to do with the architect, who’s done a great job. I’m even willing to bet that the character who lives here is entirely bamboozled by the kitchen’s visual mazes and doesn’t notice how poky a space that is. He probly never ever cooks anyway.
It would be fun to expose the plumbing too, in transparent plastic semi-pipes set into a polished concrete floor. The rug could be bisected by said conduit. That would REALLY be ironic. You could be seated in the really neat sitting-room and enjoy the products of your friend’s throne-time swishing by. But there is a non-facetious side to this as well [that's the beauty of whatever comes after post-modernism {i'm sure it's even more ironic about irony (meta-ironic)}; it's multifaceted, multi-interpretative]; when he returns to the room you could remonstrate with him if necessary on his profligate use of dunny paper.
mootymoo on 10 Oct 2010 at 9:52 pm #
Just teasing. It is excellent, rly.
Scotty on 11 Oct 2010 at 3:09 am #
thanks BMG
Guilherme Torres on 11 Oct 2010 at 6:40 pm #
I really love cooking and I use the kitchen all the time!
Thanks for the comments! That´s a small, but a special house.
TW on 14 Oct 2010 at 1:38 am #
Congratualtions Guilherme on a really special interior that expresses real personality.
Re: the kitchen. I agree that size does not matter. I think everyone is so used to seeing ridiculously large scale design that a modest sized kitchen appears unusual.
But of course, it isn’t unusual at all.
People forget that oversized kitchens are only a recent trend. Most architectur before the late 80′s had compact and highly efficient kitchens. It’s good to see someone going againt the ‘norm’.
miro on 14 Oct 2010 at 10:43 am #
Sou de londrina to orgulhoso de ver ele aqui…muito bommm
Tony @Verafloor on 22 Oct 2010 at 3:47 pm #
I make a living by resurfacing concrete and on many occasions have created the exact look…bravo for your choice in natural gray…it moves beyond any tinted color and works well with your black offsets….
Maria Alice Miller on 31 Oct 2010 at 5:21 pm #
Stunning. I’m really glad to see many GREAT works from Guilherme Torres here. Congrats mr. architect (and designer). Congrats Contemporist!
Will on 07 Nov 2010 at 6:53 am #
Hey, great post, great place, great work! As it so happens I’m redesigning my own place and so I’ve got one question for you: could you elaborate on how you did the “camouflage” effect on the grey walls in the living room? Is it the wall’s own structure or did you do anything special like applying some painting technique? Thanks a million! Will
Guilherme Torres on 15 Nov 2010 at 7:06 am #
Hi Will! I really used raw concrete to create this effect, but I have another house, and I decided to recreate the apearance using a special paiting technique. Maybe you could find something similar in your country.
Best regards, GT
Katja Nina on 15 Nov 2010 at 8:10 am #
i love the kitchen and the couch, and also art on the walls!