2001-2008. Rural Constructions in Joanópolis: São Paulo, Brazil

The Joanópolis House was designed for friends who frequent the Finca Carambó, two kilometres away, where we built a barbecue area in 2002. The region is the beginning of the Serra da Mantiqueira mountain range, at an altitude of 1,000 metres, on the border between São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The group of houses is on the edge of the Piracaia dam, which is part of the capital's water supply system. Nearby is the neighbourhood of Lopo, the old Bandeirantes road and a stop for livestock drovers in the 19th century. The Carambó pPavilion is built on the Carambó Farm, located on the border of the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, near the city of Joanópolis, at an altitude of 1000 metres in the Serra da Mantiqueira. The farm is located in a large pasture valley whose surrounding mountains are covered by a native forest. There was already a house there, built on a plateau at the intermediate level between the top and the bottom of the valley. It is a reconstruction of an old house in the Lopo neighbourhood, a 19th century mule drivers' stop, which was on the verge of being demolished.