This Home Sits on an Exclusive São Paolo Golf Course

The 3,000-acre upscale community of Fazenda Boa Vista is in Porto Feliz, about an hour from São Paulo, but a world away from the megacity’s relentless bustle. Envisioned by JHSF, developers of Brazil’s most exclusive shopping enclaves as well as its luxurious Fasano hotel group, the resort has become a favorite escape for well-heeled Paulistanos who prefer a weekend in bucolic horse country over the beach. A quarter of the site’s rolling green hillsides are preserved as pristine native forests and shimmering lakes. But the real attraction for weekenders-at-play are its abundant amenities and activities: two 18-hole golf courses, an equestrian center, a spa, tennis center, hiking and cycling trails, even a working farm and a kids’ club with an indoor skating rink.

This ambitious country idyll, its name translating roughly to beautiful view farm, has tapped some of Brazil’s best talents for its architecture. Isay Weinfeld conceived the Fasano hotel on the property, the equestrian center, and several neighborhoods of Fasano-branded residences. Other districts feature houses by Marcio Kogan and Uruguayan architect Carolina Proto. Add to the list of South American design luminaries Interior Design Hall of Fame member Arthur Casas, who designed a weekend villa for a São Paulo family overlooking the green expanses of one of Fazenda Boa Vista’s golf courses. Coincidentally, Studio Arthur Casas also did the home next door. Maintaining privacy–and aesthetic distinctions–between the two structures was key for the architect.

Inside a Weekend Retreat by Studio Arthur Casas

“I wanted this house to have its own identity,” Casas begins. The boxy, linear three-story home brings to life many of the signature elements of Casas’s work, especially dramatic spaces that smoothly integrate indoors and out by opening themselves completely to the surrounding landscape. In this house, a sprawling 14,000 square feet, the public rooms open onto a terrace extending the length of the swimming pool, then stepping down to a wooden deck, and finally a lush lawn bordering a golf course sand trap. The terrace, finished in large-format ceramic tiles, is a unifying element as well as a dividing line between the natural and architectural worlds.

Starkly different facade materials distinguish the base of the structure from the upper floor. The lower levels, which contain entertaining spaces, the main bedroom suite, a home office, gym, and a subgrade sauna with lounge, is finished in a rustic material typical of this region of the countryside. Hefts of granitelike Brazilian Moledo were cut on-site from larger pieces and set into a sandy mortar with wide gaps between the stones.

The upper level is clad entirely–from its pitched roof to the exterior walls–in horizontal slats of autoclaved pine that’s been injection-dyed to a carbonized finish. The same slatting finishes the flat roof of the ground-level living room and wraps onto the room’s angled interior ceiling. Window shutters on the five upstairs bedrooms pivot open to shade small balconies, creating privacy while letting in fresh air. When closed, the shutters blend with the exterior siding to render the upper floor a seamless wood-shrouded box, a favorite detail of Casas. “They merge with the facade so they’re practically imperceptible,” he explains. A metal arm locks each shutter, which is fitted with a counterweight for easy maneuvering, at fixed angles of 90, 45, and 30 degrees.

How the Home Design Reflects Architectural Traditions

Throughout the house, Casas hewed to materials and finishes that “highlight the rusticity of a country house,” as the architect describes it. Suede, leather, cotton and linen fabrics, and natural-fiber and kilim rugs complement architectural surfaces in pine, porcelain, and ceramic. Furnishings are a mix of contemporary and vintage, mostly from Brazil. Casas’s own Jaky dining table joins his Três Toras table, which resembles a bundle of polished wood logs atop an andironlike curved metal base, in the living room, where there are also sculptural armchairs by Ricardo Fasanello, José Zanine Caldas, and Sergio Rodrigues. Collections of artisanal objects in the main bedroom and displays of rough-hewn ceramics reinforce the rustic-chic vibe. For Casas, such details—along with natural finishes and materials and a soft, neutral interior palette—are as much a part of the home’s sensitivity to the landscape as the building. As Casas puts it, “It’s an architecture that is respectful of its environment.”

Explore the Indoor-Outdoor Vacation Home

studio arthur casas: nara telles; rafael palombo; fabíola andrade; marcos retzer; raimundo borges; diogo mondini; fernanda altemari; ana beatriz braga; luis lourenço; ana maria pedreschi; susana brolhani; claire dayan; julia sampaio; vinicius fadel; giovana micheloni; amanda tamburus; augusto godoi.

om studio: lighting consultant.

dedicatto: custom furniture work­shop, woodwork.

epson: general contractor.

lattoog: woven chair (terrace).

micasa: sofa (living room), desk (office).

etel design: chair, otto­man (main bedroom).

through dpot objeto; through espasso: furniture.

pedra moledo: stone walls.

manufatti: brise-soleil.

exbra: ceramic coatings.

10 Questions With… Arthur Casas

What Is Arthur Casas Up To?

Interior Design: Could you tell us about your new collection for Etel?

Arthur Casas: When I was a child, there was a very popular candy in Brazil called Soft. There were several flavors, each flavor a color, and my favorite was pineapple, which was yellow, rounded, and translucent like the glass in the collection. From this material came the desire to create the Bala Soft line of coffee and side tables for Etel.

These new pieces represent the specific way in which I work with my studio, with reference to classical architecture and the addition of a contemporary sensitivity, which is reflected both in my work as a designer and as an architect. The materiality holds the excellence in which Etel works, in its execution of handcrafted wooden furniture. When there is another material in the composition of a product, I always try to use wood, either as a protagonist or in a supporting role.

ID: What else have you completed recently?

AC: Two residences. The Orla Apartment is a project which aims to highlight its surroundings, the panoramic view of the sights of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro and Ipanema beach. Integrated living and kitchen areas allow a great view of the iconic rock formation Morro Dois Irmãos and a part of Arpoador, a beach on the southern end of the city. All the social areas look towards this nature, in flexible environments and neutral aesthetics.

Pacaembu House, on the other hand, is a city house. It’s situated in the middle of a neighborhood, yet integrated with local woods and vegetation. Special attention was paid to all scales of this project, from building to material. We designed not only its architecture, but also finishes, such as the cyclopean concrete cast on-site and custom furniture.

ID: What made you choose architect as a profession?

AC: I’ve always been very observant, an indispensable trait for an architect, and I started drawing house facades at age eight, for some reason. I also never had doubts about the profession that would accompany me in adult life. In college, I came into contact with the work of several architects, Brazilian and not, that I had never seen before. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the influence of other architects on my work. But in the beginning it was different. Youth is the period in which we are still defining ourselves or looking for ways to.

ID: In what kind of home do you live?

AC: I’ve lived in a house that I did not design for 32 years. I was 28 when I bought it, I still didn’t feel ready to design a house for myself—and the opportunity arose to buy this house, designed in 1942 by Brazilian architect Vilanova Artigas, the greatest exponent of modern architecture in São Paulo, alongside his pupil Paulo Mendes da Rocha.

It was an extremely modern house for its time, located on a steeply sloping plot of land, on five stilts. Interestingly, Artigas was 28 years old when he designed it. But I’m moving in about six months into a building I’m designing, into an apartment with a wonderful view of the city of São Paulo. I felt the need for change after many years and stories in the same space, but I don’t intend to sell the house or reuse the furniture, all from the Modernist period and including some works of art of that time.

ID: If you could choose a favorite material today for both the bathroom and the kitchen, what would you choose? How has this answer changed over your career?

AC: I avoid using natural stones, I prefer handcrafted or industrialized ceramic. I don’t see any need to use marble and granite in bathrooms and kitchens as I did in the past, given the vast amount of beautiful, high-quality ceramics, as well as synthetic materials composed of resin.

ID: How do you approach color?

AC: I always use the same color on the walls, a special bright formula of ‘wedding white.’ I also like to always have a hint of ocher in the palette to make the environment friendlier and warmer.

ID: Who in the industry that you particularly admire?

AC: Frank Lloyd Wright, for his inherent command of scale and his unwavering commitment to applying it at each stage of a project’s completion.

ID: What are you reading?

AC: The Difficulty of Being by Jean Cocteau, who was everything: writer, filmmaker, artist, designer. It’s an autobiographical account, a sincere statement on issues such as insecurities and inspiration, and how and under what conditions these surface in a plural artist like him.

ID: Do you have a secret you can share?

AC: I really like the work of Seu Fernando da Ilha do Ferro, a craftsman, artist and dare I say, designer, illiterate, from an isolated village in the poor northeast of Brazil. He produced furniture of a very rich aesthetic quality using fallen wood, found in his local forest, close to the São Francisco River.

A Closer Look at Studio Arthur Casa’s Residential Repertoire

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See more of the BD House in this Interior Design feature.

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Furniture Design by Studio Arthur Casas

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Studio Arthur Casas Designs a Modernist Home Surrounded by Greenery in Brazil

2022 Best of Year Winner for Large City House

When clients, a young couple with two small children, came to Brazilian architect and Interior Design Hall of Fame member Arthur Casas, they had a small plot of land in São Paulo and a large list of desires. They wanted privacy from the street but as much usable outdoor space as possible. They wanted an open-plan kitchen and living area that would accommodate entertaining but also home offices for each of them. And they needed bedrooms for their children and guests as well as their own suite. Casas and his team gave them everything they asked for, and more, in a modernist 7,000-square-foot house tucked into lush greenery.

The ground floor flows out to an expansive terrace protected by the overhanging second floor. There, the facade incorporates a cobogó, a cast-concrete screen used throughout Brazil to modulate the strong sun. This custom version, cast on-site and tinted ochre, helps the upstairs rooms feel secluded while preserving views of the grounds and allowing fresh air to circulate.

Stunningly, additional outdoor space is provided on the house’s roof, a flat plane decked in wooden planks. It features a firepit surrounded by a built-in banquette on one end, a lap pool on the other—all bordered by more verdant landscaping.

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Studio Arthur Casas: arthur casas; regiane khristian; eduardo mikowski; biz braga; fernanda altemari; gabriel leitão; pedro brito.

This Horse Farm in Brazil Features Design Standouts by Studio Arthur Casas

You might call the fascination humans have for horses “primal.” After all, we have been captivated by them ever since we were cave dwellers and painted their images on the rock walls. Over the ages, they have remained a source of inspiration for artists—and architects. In fact, there may be no more iconic work of Latin American modernism than Cuadra San Cristóbal, a private residence and stable outside Mexico City designed in the 1960s by Luis Barragán, himself an avid equestrian. Stunning as the austere white house is, it’s the stable with its punched-out walls in rosy hues, trough waterfall, and L-shape exercise pool that most beguiles. The spare, artful arrangement of mass, space, and color brilliantly showcases the horses as if they were living sculpture. 

Continuing in that tradition is a new recreation complex that architect Arthur Casas recently completed at Coudelaria Rocas do Vouga, one of Brazil’s leading Lusitano horse studs, in the old colonial municipality of Itu, northwest of Saõ Paulo. The Lusitano is a majestic breed of ancient Portuguese origin, once prized as a war charger and now sought after for competitive sport and personal equitation. Casas’s brief encompassed indoor and outdoor spaces where the client could not only parade his purebreds but also entertain, hold meetings, and provide accommodations for visiting family, friends, and prospective buyers. 

The architect, who is known for fusing modernist and contemporary styles with tropical flair, responded with a comprehensive scheme that gives a nod to the Mexican master, while being wholly his own. “I always wanted to one day create a work where horses—for me the most beautiful animals—could be part of the scenery,” he confides.  

The Studio Arthur Casas principal is a longtime proponent of sustainable architecture. “If I could, I would create invisible works,” he says, “leaving nature to take the lead.” He studied the site carefully to optimize his plan’s potential for cross ventilation and natural illumination, reducing the need for air conditioning and artificial light. Quick construction was also of the essence, so Casas chose prefabricated steel frames for the structures, shortening building time to a mere 10 months and keeping waste to a minimum. 

Like his horses, the client is of Portuguese descent, and he continues to have strong ties to his ancestral country. With that heritage in mind, Casas conceived the complex as a pair of simple, low-slung buildings—a 9,700-square-foot entertainment pavilion and a 5,400-square-foot guesthouse—replete with courtyards and water features, classic elements in Portugal’s romantic old quintas. While the pavilion and guesthouse are strikingly contemporary in appearance, the materials used inside and out are evocative of those Iberian rural estates, with their stone walls, timber columns and beams, and azulejos, the flamboyantly patterned blue-and-white tin-glazed tiles seen throughout the country. Keen that the complex also blend with the landscape, Casas sourced many of his materials locally and adhered to a palette of earthy tones. The different textures and hues of the rough stone, carbonized pine, and burnt concrete are what gives his design a rustic, yet sophisticated character. 

Handsome as the complex is by day, it’s even more stunning as night falls. Ground-level spotlights bathe the exterior stone walls, accentuating their surface textures, while recessed floodlights in the ceiling softly illuminate the interior, with table and floor lamps providing an additional warm glow. When a fire blazes in the central hearth and the Lusitanos are put through their paces in the gathering dusk outside, guests may well experience the same primal stirrings of wonder that our ancestors must have felt when the flickering firelight played across the horses painted on their cave walls. 

Studio Arthur Casas: nara telles, rafael palombo, gabriel leitão, paulina tabet, camila dalloca, marcos retzer, raul valadão, amanda tamburus

renata rilli paisagismo: landscape consultant

mingrone iluminação: lighting consultant

osborne construtora: general contractor

viúva lamego: wall tile (entry)

etel design: coffee tables (sitting area), center tables (home theater)

micasa: sofas (sitting area, home theater)

boobam: folded-steel side tables (sitting area, home theater)

dpot: armchair (sitting area), side chairs, bar stool (dining area)

herança cultural design art gallery: lounge chair, ottoman (sitting area), round tables (dining area), table lamp (guest room)

studio objeto: table lamp (sitting area), bench (guest room)

blackball: pool table (games area)

arquivo vivo: caster chairs (dining area)

oswaldo antiques: armchair (guest room)

BY KAMY: RUG

curtains emporium: custom headboard

arthur casas for trousseau: bed cover

deca: sink, sink fittings (bathroom)

l’oeil: chaise longues, side table (swimming pool)

corcovado, kvadratt, uniflex: upholstery and curtain fabric

la novitá: upholstery leather

Studio Arthur Casas Plays Off Light and Shadow in this São Paulo Showroom

2021 Best of Year winner for Showroom

Launched in 2020 to showcase sustainable furniture conceived and manufactured in Brazil, +55 Design needed a physical environment that would capture the essential Brazilian-ness of its wares. So who better to turn to for it than hometown architect and Interior Design Hall of Fame member Arthur Casas. His and his team’s solution resulted in a 7,750-square-foot, two-level showroom, its striking minimalism allowing the furniture to take center stage.

Controlling and modulating the strong tropical sun was a focus of the project. It’s also been a focus of Brazilian design for some time, giving rise to the cast-concrete facade screens known as cobogós. Casas’s version adds intriguing pattern—what he calls a “game of light and shadow”—to the otherwise neutral interior. It’s there that an amorphous opening connects the ground level and the mezzanine, adding a sculptural element. Encased in MDF paneling with a European oak finish, it’s topped by a retractable glass roof that floods the interior with natural light; from the mezzanine level, the opening serves to frame seating and tables by the likes of Roberta Banqueri, Studio MK27, and Casas himself grouped below. That level literally spills outdoors onto a terrace, which is surrounded by lush native plants, protected by a retractable awning, and furnished with more pieces by Casas.

Studio Arthur Casas: Arthur Casas; Regiane Khristian; Rafael Palombo; Alessandra Mattar; Luisa Mader; Fernanda Costa; Paulina Tabet