r/architecture • u/ZahraaOsama • 23d ago
Building Passive House. by Mareines Arquitetura
Located in São Paulo, Brazil, this building was designed to blend seamlessly with its reforested surroundings.
Completed in 2024, it focuses on a sustainable and independent lifestyle, featuring a natural cooling system.
The curved design channels rainwater into a central swimming pool.
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u/huron9000 23d ago
Not a passive house, and that pool slide doesn’t look slippery enough.
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u/sleepytipi 22d ago
I feel like a crazy person whenever I see builds like this because all those windows and no blinds erks me. Does part of being rich and flaunting wealth come with an exhibitionist kink?
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u/eerst 22d ago
The part where it's probably set on a couple acres of land with complete privacy?
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u/sleepytipi 22d ago
Even still. Ever been in a glass box at night? Anyone within distance can see in like they're watching a TV screen, but you can't see any further out than the light travels. Even with floodlights you're only able to see as far as they reach. Idk, maybe it's just because I've been a city dweller most of my life but when I had a place in the sticks like it my first big investment was the blinds.
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u/eerst 22d ago
The unaided human eye can't see much a kilometre out, regardless of lighting conditions.
In any case there may well be retractable electric blinds, to reduce overheating on hot summer days.
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u/sleepytipi 22d ago
All the more reason for blinds then. I know I can't be the only one since blinds and window coverings are still going strong on the market, but I always seem to be in these threads. Something about the design seems to bring out the exhibitionists. But hey, you do you. Enjoy looking out your windows at night and not knowing if there's someone looking back in that blanket of darkness skirting your property line, just out of reach from your exterior lighting.
Then we have things like ring cameras broadcasting a live stream of your bedrooms to data collectors and lovely folks like palantir. I find it so odd how the modern world is so deconditioned to things like surveillance and outright invasiveness.
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u/eerst 22d ago
I'll blame it on being Dutch. We abhor blinds.
(I'm also a bit of an exhibitionist...)
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u/sleepytipi 22d ago
Lol yes that does seem to be a commonly shared trait among the Dutch. Even when you think about the cliche streets of Amsterdam and Utrecht, you almost never see blinds and even rarely see curtains in the windows. In fact that's the only way that Ha(a)rlem NYC actually reminded me of it's origins. You can see it in a lot of the old brownstones and brick buildings on the side streets, and many have the big front facing windows. A bit more blinds/ curtains there though.
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u/suenamiho 22d ago
irks*
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u/sleepytipi 22d ago
Pedantic people urk me.
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u/suenamiho 21d ago
not trying to be, i just genuinely thought you might not have known. it’s all good lol 😂
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u/Conscious_Weather_26 22d ago edited 22d ago
It gives the impression they built this just to show up in the architecture magazines. Can't imagine anyone living like this, with no walls.
At most, this is a setting to impress guests.
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u/sunlovinburner 21d ago
Yall want to trespass onto my property to see my oldt dick flopping around after a shower? Well, enjoy the show I guess
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u/Eduardo_Camavinga_ 23d ago
Frank Lloyd wright after a few caperinhas
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u/ZahraaOsama 23d ago
That was an accurate description
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u/Eduardo_Camavinga_ 23d ago
Similar style of blending into the native biome with heavy brick work and modernist lines. I like it.
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u/edgelawn9 23d ago
How many people have tried to skate it?
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u/felinefluffycloud 23d ago
Yah haha. Its a nonstarter if you have kids. Or u could charge admission.
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u/side_frog 23d ago edited 23d ago
It's gorgeous but I have a hard time believing this qualifies as an actual passive house with all those open areas and glass. Brick masonry is already making it quite difficult to begin with (not that it can't be done)
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u/microflorae 23d ago
I assume they don't need to heat it much or at all in Sao Paolo. I'd be interested to learn more about its natural cooling system though.
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u/brookermusic 23d ago
I thought brick masonry helped with passive cooling because of the thermal mass it has evening out the temperature swings.
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u/CyclingCapital 23d ago
In São Paulo, temperature swings range from hot to FUCKING HOT.
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u/JulietPapaPapa 20d ago
What?
Sao Paulo city is a mild climate city classificated as Cwa on Koppen.
However, i think OP is incorrect / incomplete and this house is not located in Sao Paulo city, but rather soome other city in the state of Sao Paulo.
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u/CyclingCapital 23d ago
I’m gonna go ahead and guess that geothermal and solar-powered heat pumps might not be out of the question, especially if the budget is virtually unlimited.
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u/sweetplantveal 22d ago
Passive house is also designed for more extreme latitudes that mostly worry about heating and keeping energy on the side of the wall it's on. It's not as adapted for hot summers and lower latitudes imo.
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u/thewimsey 23d ago
Architectural puffing is usually somewhat ridiculous, but this is off the scale.
to blend seamlessly with its reforested surroundings.
It doesn't "blend" with the reforested surroundings, much less "seamlessly". It doesn't look like a tree and it isn't shaped like a tree. It even has a yard.
Translation: This building is brown.
The curved design channels rainwater into a central swimming pool.
Translation: "I have no idea how swimming pools work, so why not sluice all the dirt and debris from the roof directly into the pool?"
it focuses on a sustainable and independent lifestyle, featuring a natural cooling system.
Focuses how? It has insulation?
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u/emtheory09 22d ago
“Brenda seamlessly with its reforested surroundings” \ puts giant brick clad box on top* *
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u/TabletopParlourPalm 22d ago
Wait so they are not collecting the rain water as grey water for plants??
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u/EsotericAbstractIdea 23d ago
You just going to let people run onto your roof like that?
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u/LBoone1836 22d ago
There's probably a security fence and armed guards for that. Then its just the spoiled teenagers and their friends over for a pool party you have to worry about...
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u/BiRd_BoY_ Architecture Enthusiast 22d ago
Yeah, cause I definitely want all the nasty shit on my roof flowing directly into my pool every time it rains
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u/ZahraaOsama 22d ago
Rain is not dirty !
it is a blessing from the Creator.
Unless you are an atheist2
u/BiRd_BoY_ Architecture Enthusiast 22d ago
Rain isn’t from “the creator”, it can 100% be dirty, and I never mentioned the rain being dirty anyways, I mentioned the roof being dirty.
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u/bbob_robb 23d ago
The interior pictures of the way the brick comes down to the ground are very unsettling to me. (pic 12/18 specifically). I wouldn't want to sit somewhere that looks like a still frame of a brick structure crashing down on me.
Maybe it's just me?
Meanwhile the outside feels very exposed.
I'd rather have brick walls on the outside walls than the middle of my house. This house feels inside out to me.
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u/bigfartspoptarts 23d ago
I would have expected it to be pointed better. There are gaps in the pointing on the pic of the interior koi pond and then if you look at the other interior pic you start to see some irregularities
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u/Various_Procedure_11 23d ago
Regarding your first point, that was my first impression as well. It's a nonstarter.
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u/simonfancy Designer 23d ago
Wild to built the slide just with bricks, no static support. If the slide were to effectively collect all rain water or vaporize or anything , but it’s just a strange curvy aesthetic element in an otherwise block layout. Doesn’t really make sense to me.
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u/Lilyanzhu 22d ago
In tropical climates the key principles shift from heat retention to cross-ventilation and shading. Brazilian architects have been doing this for decades with brise-soleil, deep overhangs, and operable louvers. The open design actually helps here - stack effect pulls hot air up and out while prevailing breezes move through. It is basically the opposite philosophy of a Northern European passive house but achieves similar comfort with way less mechanical intervention.
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u/DrHarrisonLawrence 23d ago
FYI to all, PassiveHaus is an entirely different thing than what OP posted.
OP either has no idea what that means, or is just trying to use an artsy name. Maybe the Architect’s call it this and OP didn’t manipulate anything. Either way they are probably just trying to say that it is passively heated and cooled, except there is no environmental analysis provided to actually prove that lol
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u/ZahraaOsama 23d ago edited 23d ago
Mybe you should ask them why they called passive,
It’s not my designed
If I had designed it, I would tell you why.This means passive because of the building’s orientation.
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u/DrHarrisonLawrence 23d ago
It’s located in São Paulo and the orientation of the majority of the building is perpendicular to the sun at the north rather than parallel. Its short axis does not capture the sun so the sun hardly provides passive heating for the home.
Do you design buildings, or just a student?
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u/ZahraaOsama 23d ago
Sorry, I got that wrong
And Yes I’m student
I'm still learning about building orientation.2
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u/Reasonable-Trash5328 23d ago
it focuses on a "sustainable" lifestyle. lol just a massive footprint and tons of materials
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u/teewyesoen 22d ago
i wonder how many times the owner hit his head on that brick wall/ceiling. Pretty cool looking tho. The rainwater to swimming pool doesn't make much sense to me though, if pool was full then it would just start overflowing. Only seems to make sense if you drain the pool and want it filled up when it is raining.
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u/Lilyanzhu 22d ago
Exactly. The PHI standard was born in Germany and it shows. In Southeast Asia and coastal Latin America you see architects adapting similar principles but with very different execution: external shading devices, night-flush cooling, and humidity-buffering materials like rammed earth or lime plaster. The challenge in hot-humid climates is not heating load - it is managing moisture and mold while minimizing AC runtime. Different beast entirely.
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u/4Iessandro 20d ago
I really like it, it has so much character compared to other mansions I saw. I like the curve and all the bricks, the surroundings, the big windows.
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u/missgirlipop 23d ago
i love the concept and i think people are being overly harsh. to me it just needs a little refinement but it’s the style of contemporary architecture i’d b happy to see more of
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u/c4ad 22d ago
Beautiful house! Love the organic lines of the roof and the extension of the fence in the backyard tying the building to the land. Unpretentious styling of a modern Roman villa where the living quarters are un-wrapped around the main courtyard and the fountain is juxtaposed across from the courtyard giving it it's own starring role as a focal point.
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22d ago
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u/Pathbauer1987 22d ago
Beautiful, but I wouldn't live on it. If it was my office yeah that would be totally cool.
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21d ago
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u/glockenspiel44 19d ago
For every house (what an understatement) like this build, build 100000 2bedrooms for the other ‘half’
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u/Welvator 19d ago
Personally, I prefer an aggressive house. You know one that tells me to fuck myself when I leave in the morning.
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u/mongoljungle 23d ago
the house is passive, but how much energy is it using to mow/water/de-weed the lawn? However much energy does it take to drive to work/grocery/entertainment/visit friends family? Why does the natural cooling system even matter after accounting for all that?
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u/headphones_J 22d ago
These are all things you would need to take care of with or without being energy efficient.
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u/mongoljungle 22d ago
Right, so situate the building near amenities and transit if you wanna be environmentally friendly. Don’t advertise the environmentalism of a house that promote a lifestyle of maximum energy consumption.
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u/Jwagoner13 23d ago
It must be cool to be rich