Volumes as Organizers

The GLG Residence has been completed in the Fazenda da Grama Condominium, located in the interior of São Paulo state, Brazil. The design team at Ximenes Leite Arquitetura used a clear interpretation of volumes and floor plan arrangement as the core architectural language to spatially organize each function of the home.

According to the architects, the project was conceived with architecture and interior design integrated from the outset. Rather than treating the two disciplines separately, a single unified concept guided the entire process — an approach that goes beyond surface aesthetics to account for the full scope of how residents live.

Balancing Privacy, Togetherness, and the Landscape

The central design challenge for GLG Residence was striking a balance between three demands: privacy, communal living, and connection to the surrounding environment. Volumes were positioned to protect the intimate domain of the residents within a condominium setting, while simultaneously maintaining visual and spatial continuity with the natural landscape.

Fazenda da Grama is a nature-oriented residential community in São Paulo's interior, characterized by greenery and open outdoor spaces. This site condition directly shaped how the design team approached the boundary between interior and exterior.

Within the Current of Brazilian Residential Architecture

Brazilian modern architecture has evolved from the Modernist tradition represented by Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa. Since placing itself on the global stage with the construction of Brasília in the mid-twentieth century, Brazilian architecture has continuously developed its own vocabulary drawing on tropical climate and local materials.

Since the 2010s, integrated architecture-and-interior design has become increasingly standard in Brazilian residential work. Studio-style firms that treat facade and interior space under a single concept have grown more common, particularly in the high-end residential market — and Ximenes Leite Arquitetura's approach aligns with this trajectory. The stand-alone house within a condominium remains a highly sought-after typology in Brazilian middle-to-upper-class residential culture, with the negotiation between shared and private space always at the center of the design problem.