Residential development · Brasília · 2022

A foreign jurisdiction, six months

A two-and-a-half-hectare residential development in Brasília. The design was produced in Budapest; the building permit was obtained in six months, with a local architect.

The brief

Two and a half hectares, several houses, a gently sloping wooded site. The programme was clear. The difficulty was not the design but how it becomes a permit in a country where the studio had no track record.

In Brazil a scheme can only be submitted by an architect registered with CAU, the federal council of architects and urbanists. In Portuguese, to local regulation, through local procedure. From Budapest that cannot be bypassed — only solved.

The answer

Ren Design carried the design; submission and dealings with the authorities were carried by architect Ricardo Paiva Martins (CAU A 3084-8) of Haddad Guimarães Carvalhaes Arquitectos. This is the same arrangement international hotel development knows as "design architect and architect of record" — with Ren Design on the design side.

The buildings are white rendered volumes with flat roofs, deep projecting eaves and built-in timber shutters — Brazilian modernism from the part of it that is climate response rather than style. Upper masses land on columns in places, with covered terrace beneath; planting and an outdoor room on the roof.

Inside, pieces of Brazilian furniture design set the tone: leather and solid timber, low seat heights, wide arms. Not a prop — in Brazil this furniture is one of the strongest legacies of the country's own design culture, and the rooms were proportioned to it.

What it took

Six months to a greenfield building permit in a foreign jurisdiction. No local precedent, no familiarity with the authority process, no Portuguese. What made it work: the local architect was a partner rather than a subcontractor — regulatory constraints entered the design process rather than arriving after it.

That difference decides the programme of any foreign project. If the local designer only receives the finished scheme, every clash means redesign. If they are in from the start, the constraint shapes the design instead of correcting it.

Data

Location: Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil
Year: 2022
Type: Residential development
Site: 2.5 hectares
Our role: Architectural and interior construction documentation, building permit
Architect: András Toldi
Local architect: Ricardo Paiva Martins (CAU A 3084-8), Haddad Guimarães Carvalhaes Arquitectos
Status: Building permit obtained, 6 months

A white rendered flat-roofed house from the garden: the upper mass lands on a column with a covered terrace beneath, timber-framed openings, a glass-balustraded roof terrace with a parasol above — Upper masses land on columns in places, with covered terrace beneath; planting and an outdoor room on the roof.

The inner garden of the site: a large existing tree, palms, lawn, a stepped path and two white rendered houses beyond — The trees stayed: the lawn between the houses and the path follow the existing planting.

Living room in daylight: leather armchairs on solid timber frames, round nesting tables, dining area and open kitchen beyond, a full-width glazed door onto the covered terrace at the left — Pieces of Brazilian furniture design set the tone inside: leather and solid timber, low seats, wide arms.

The same living and dining space in evening light: a concealed light line, a globe pendant, a slatted timber wall panel and the lit garden beyond the openings — After dark the concealed lighting and the garden light work together; the room continues past the openings.

Kitchen with a terrazzo island and bar stools, matt cabinetry, a timber-lined pantry door and the dining area with a round mirror to the right — The kitchen opens onto the dining area: terrazzo worktop, matt fronts, timber around the openings.

A deeply shaded covered terrace with a teak dining set and lounge chairs, a slatted timber screen and the neighbouring house beyond the garden — The deep eaves do the work against the sun — the terrace is part of the living space, not an appendix.

Roof terrace with a glass balustrade: teak seating, a large cantilever parasol, planters, palms and tree canopies around — An outdoor room on the roof: shade, planting, and a view at canopy height.

Visualisations, not photographs · post-production includes AI-based upscaling and retouching

Ren Design is an interior architecture practice based in Budapest, with work across Europe, the Gulf and South America. On this project it produced the architectural and interior concept and the visualisations; submission and dealings with the authorities were carried by a local CAU-registered architect partner.