Jazz was playing upstairs—Ella Fitzgerald’s voice gliding down a twist of white steel steps toward the pastel terrazzo floor below. But the soundtrack could easily have been bossa nova.

The house that Tito Ficarelli built for his family on a hill in the calm Alto de Pinheiros neighborhood, a tree-lined haven on the west side of sprawling São Paulo, merges two distinctly Brazilian architectural styles.

From the street, behind a low fence, the 4,000-square-foot home has a rough-and-ready facade of dark cinder blocks that riffs on the teeming city’s more ad hoc architecture. But once inside the front gate, in a garden full of purple flowers, you see that the blocks sit on top of a pedestal of sorts, a comparatively polished cast-in-place concrete structure that nods to São Paulo’s tradition of tropical brutalism.

The contrast makes for a favela-meets-bourgeoisie moment that corresponds to the spaces inside. Tito, cofounder with his sister of the firm Arkitito, calls the building “a house upside down”—the private quarters are on the lower floor, where pristine white walls frame huge windows draped in billowing curtains, and social spaces are in the more casual, cinder-block structure above.

“We decided to do something that was commonly seen in the early part of the 20th century—a house-museum,” says Tito. “More specifically, it’s a functional home for our family, but it’s also a space where the public is invited in to see art exhibitions or site-specific performances.”

Tito and his wife, Luiza Gottschalk, an actor and a visual artist, as well as their two young daughters, have private space on the ground floor under coffered concrete ceilings.

“The large roof purposely brings the sunset inside—without any control. The wood reflects the warmth of the reddish light, coloring the entire home. Every day, it’s a new painting, a different nuance.”
—Tito Ficarelli, architect and resident

Three bedrooms—one large, one medium, and one small—sit across from a shared bathroom that Tito calls a “locker room,” though with polished marine-grade plywood doors, it’s far better appointed.

A “piazza,” where the girls often play, runs through the middle of the domestic spaces. Luiza also has a studio on the ground floor, where she makes large paintings on canvas. The scale of her work led Tito to excavate roughly two feet into the ground on the lower level to maximize the studio’s height.

Luiza’s brightly colored paintings hang throughout the house, making it feel not at all like a concrete bunker and more like, as Tito puts it, “a home impregnated with color.”

The house may have roots in brutalism, but rather than lending it austerity, the raw concrete gives it a naked nonchalance. Surrounded by gardens, and with sliding doors on all sides, the home feels remarkably open.

The family’s three dogs freely roam the property, and a steady parade of people pop in and out of the house. “We wanted it to feel like a club, a place for our guests to come and go,” Tito says.

The second floor is all about entertaining and projects an inviting attitude. The cement blocks are softened by simple plywood finishes and frame hammock-draped hangout spaces with a casual boho vibe.

From an open kitchen and living room, the roof slopes upward—its height was partly determined by the largest of Luiza’s canvases—toward a glass wall that opens to a light-bathed pool terrace, where visitors often mingle as they take in the view over the city. A small top floor houses a music studio next to a roof garden.

The living area is bright and airy all day long, but the show really begins in the evening. The Sunset House takes its name from a neighboring square and its own privileged view of São Paulo’s smoggy, dramatically pink and orange skies as night falls.

In the evening, breezes from all directions converge in the living room as a hazy sun goes down behind swaying banana and tangerine trees.

Well into the night, guests are frequently treated to some of the house’s dramatic features. Luiza repurposed velvet curtains from an abandoned theater to close off the kitchen, turning it into either back of house or backstage.

A vintage 1980s analog lighting console rescued from the same playhouse now hangs on the wall as a control mechanism for the overhead spotlights that illuminate the living room, transforming it from a gallery for Luiza’s work into a venue for plays and dance recitals.

The house morphs from playground to museum to music hall or party venue depending on who is visiting. With a twist of São Paulo styles, it welcomes everyone to the club.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Arkitito / @arkitito

General Contractor: Osvaldo Santos Amaral

Structural Engineering: Marcelo Mello

Landscape Design: Olivia Uliano / @livthenature

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