Casa CLL by Bernardes Arquitetura

_presented by Oficina de Marcenaria

_project: Casa CLL
_architecture: Bernades Arquitetura
_landscape: Marcelo Faisal Paisagismo
_location: Porto Feliz, São Paulo, Brazil

Some houses are not made to dominate the landscape, but to understand it. They begin with the ground, with its slopes, levels and natural rhythms, allowing architecture to grow from the site rather than stand apart from it. In homes designed for retreat and gathering, this relationship becomes even more important. Comfort is not only about rooms and functions, but about the way one arrives, pauses, moves through shade, opens the view, and experiences the constant exchange between inside and outside.

Located in Porto Feliz, in the countryside of São Paulo, Casa CLL by Bernardes Arquitetura was designed as a place for family gatherings and rest. Instead of imposing a single platform onto the sloping site, the house is organised across three plateaus, bringing together private areas, social spaces and leisure. This stepped layout allows the project to unfold gradually, turning movement through the house into a continuous reading of the terrain.

A single roof brings unity to the composition while adapting to the different atmospheres within. Over the bedrooms, it creates a more intimate scale; over the social areas, it rises generously, amplifying openness and strengthening the connection with the surroundings. Between these moments, gardens, patios, the swimming pool and the lawn soften the transitions between levels, transforming topography into a sequence of everyday experiences.

At the edges of the plateaus, four stone-clad structural blocks contain wet areas and service functions. These volumes support the large glued laminated timber plane above, whose broad overhangs create shaded circulation around the house. Partly covered with greenery, the roof extends the dialogue between architecture and nature while contributing to thermal comfort, rainwater retention and environmental performance. By setting the planted area back from the perimeter, the structure keeps a slender profile, preserving the lightness of the horizontal gesture.

The material palette reinforces this balance between weight and softness. White Piracema stone, green-pigmented charred timber panels, and the warm timber of the roof and ceiling create a composition that feels both grounded and tactile. Natural light enters through zenithal openings, while solar panels support water heating, making sustainability part of the house’s quiet intelligence rather than an isolated statement.

Inside, furniture selected to sit alongside the owners’ collection, including pieces by Jorge Zalszupin, Joaquim Tenreiro and Jacqueline Terpins, adds another layer of memory and character. Casa CLL becomes a house of calibrated contrasts: solid yet light, generous yet intimate, contemporary yet deeply connected to landscape, materiality and everyday rituals.

_article written by Daniela Moreira da Silva
_film by Architecture Hunter
_cover and image scroll by Fernando Guerra

_drawings by Bernardes Arquitetura

1. Floor Plan
2. Section AA