tetro unveils triangular timber roofline for brazilian house
TETRO has completed Casa Tangram in Lagoa Santa, Brazil, positioning the 1,450-square-meter residence at the highest point of its 5,000-square-meter lakeside site. From the street, the house appears as a slender, horizontal line. Conceived by architects Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes, and Igor Macedo, the design utilizes the site’s topography, bold massing, and the inherent weight of materials to achieve a sense of disappearance. Retaining walls, stone embankments, and the building’s own volume work together to create a visual barrier, allowing the city to fade away once inside. The house then orients itself fully toward the surrounding trees, greenery, and water.
The home is arranged around a triangular geometry, which inspired its name. This form is extended into a glued-laminated timber roof, composed of a series of folded, triangular planes. Serving as the project’s defining spatial element, the roof acts as a protective canopy on the street side, compressing the facade into a low, understated profile. In contrast, the roof unfolds and opens completely toward the lake.
Overhead openings are cut through the timber structure, channeling controlled daylight into the main living areas and upper-floor circulation. The construction is hybrid in nature, pairing timber roofs and porches with exposed concrete slabs and walls. The stone retaining walls anchor the house into the sloping terrain, functioning as both structure and landscape threshold, further enhancing the impression that the home is partially carved from the hillside.
all images by Manuel Sá
embedded programs shape an inhabited landscape
Casa Tangram’s structure is carefully integrated with the site’s gentle slopes, functioning as a transitional space that is protected on one side and open on the other, guiding movement from the street down to the lake. By stretching its distinctive roofline along the horizon and extending its triangular planes toward the water, the Brazilian team at TETRO creates a home that redefines domestic life around natural light, topography, and a seamless connection with its environment.
The lower level is the social heart of the house: the living room, kitchen, gourmet area, wine cellar, and swimming pool all open to the lake with floor-to-ceiling glass and terraces that reach outward. Some functions, such as the auxiliary kitchen, bathroom, and wine cellar, are tucked within the retaining wall, transforming the interface between architecture and landscape into a thick, inhabitable zone. The pool’s edge visually fuses with the lake, blurring the boundary between the built environment and nature.
Upstairs, the private wing houses a family room and five bedrooms—including the master suite, two children’s rooms, and two guest rooms. Every room faces the landscape, sheltered by the deep eaves of the roof and insulated by the home’s elevation above the street.
TETRO completes Casa Tangram in Lagoa Santa, Brazil
the residence appears from the street as a slender, horizontal line
the architects placed the 1,450-square-meter residence at the highest point of the 5,000-square-meter site
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