Brazilian architect's house - in pictures

There is a compelling originality, creativity and character to Brazilian design and architecture. The country has a powerful design history, while its icons – Oscar Niemeyer, Lina Bo Bardi, furniture designer Sérgio Rodrigues and others – have been joined by a fresh wave that has re-established the country as a focal point of imaginative creativity. Part of this new breed, designer Guilherme Torres has conflicting interests: the architect within him is a minimalist, but the decorator inside is much more compulsive. These different facets of Torres’s aesthetic approach are very much in evidence at his home in São Paulo, where the architectural framework might be clean and linear, but the interiors and furnishings are full of colour and character.

Custom kitchen units designed by Torres combine with a vibrant orange countertop. The breakfast table in recycled timber is also by the architect; surrounding it are chairs by Konstantin Grcic. Photograph: Richard Powers

“Normally people who design in a minimalist way live in a minimalist space, but that is not me,” he says. “My style is not typically Brazilian or traditional – it’s different. I have a real mix of influences: modernist architects such as Mies van der Rohe; Brazilian architecture of the 1960s and 70s. I have a romantic approach to modernism.” Torres moved back to São Paulo after 10 years in the northern city of Londrina and began hunting for a home in the Jardins district – the leafy central hub of São Paulo’s design community. But it was a year before he found a modest 1940s house that was ripe for reinvention. “I love this neighbourhood, but it is difficult to find what you want here,” he says. “The house used to finish where the courtyard begins, so my kitchen and covered courtyard are where the old back yard used to be.”

The bed is a custom design by Torres. An internal window looks down on to the kitchen courtyard below. Photograph: Richard Powers

The new entrance to Torres’s home is a wood-lattice front door, sitting within a gravel driveway, with a single, towering tree to one side. Step through the door and you find yourself in an open-plan living space, with a combined dining area and lounge leading through to the new courtyard – with its own internal garden and retractable glass roof – and the kitchen alongside. Many of the pieces throughout are his own design, either bespoke or selected creations from his furniture range. The dining table is one example, as is the striking teal sofa, echoed in the colour used to paint the stairwell by the entrance.

The concrete bath sits within a sheltered indoor garden, overlooking the kitchen courtyard Photograph: Richard Powers

The kitchen is a custom creation. “It was more ordinary, and I hated it from the start,” Torres says. “I decided to call on a group of artist friends, who customised the units with newspaper and silkscreen patterns – then I loved it. The worktops are in orange Corian and the bespoke breakfast table was made using recycled timber from old houses in Londrina.” The adjacent courtyard helps to bring natural light into the ground floor, and the indoor garden lends the house a more organic note. “The light is very important for the trees as well,” Torres adds. “I put trees in the courtyard because it has always been my dream to eat while the branches of the trees protect and shelter me. I love that sensation.”

The lightbox artwork is another piece by Pinky Wainer, and the steel dining chairs are by Italian firm Magis. Photograph: Richard Powers

The only separate space on the ground floor is a study, off to one side of the living room. Upstairs is a guest bedroom that doubles as a library, a dressing room, two bathrooms and the master bedroom, painted a glowing peach-pink and overlooking, via an internal window, the kitchen courtyard. The bath and the shower area are on a mezzanine above the kitchen, also looking on to the courtyard, with a bespoke concrete bath and shower partly shrouded by another row of planting for privacy. “I love having lots of plants around me,” Torres says. “It’s like being in the treetops.”

A detail of the sofa in the main living room: curious moments such as this lend depth and interest to the house. Photograph: Richard Powers

This is a modestly scaled house, but one that is full of personality and individuality. There are neon artworks on the front of the building and on the stairs, by artist Pinky Wainer, as well as a vibrant lightbox, also by Wainer, downstairs in the dining area. Works from Moooi and Konstantin Grcic add another layer of interest to a house that feels fresh and contemporary, but is also bursting with colour and character.

Custom kitchen units designed by Torres combine with a vibrant orange countertop. Photograph: Richard Powers

The neon artwork at the front of the house is by Pinky Wainer; the latticed entrance area is another bespoke design by Torres.

Extracted from New Brazilian House by Dominic Bradbury, photographs by Richard Powers, published by Thames & Hudson at £24.95. To order a copy for £19.96, go to theguardian.com/bookshop.
Text © 2014 Dominic Bradbury. Photographs © 2014 Richard Powers Photograph: Richard Powers