Photos by Fernando Guerra | FG+SG, Inna Kablukova, Robert Niederl
Stardom—a word synonymous with glittering glamour and staggering success. When we think of stars and celebrities, we invariably think of beautiful things: beautiful people, beautiful clothes, beautiful cars, and of course, beautiful houses. What kind of wondrous, undreamed-of places do they live in?
Yet, just as there are many kinds of stars, there are also different types of houses to cater to their wishes. Some may revel in glitz and opulence while others prefer to place their highest premium on privacy. The following are but a few examples of the kinds of houses these big names may choose for their ‘humble’ abodes.
Fazenda Boa Vista
Porto Feliz, Brazil
The concept of Fazenda Boa Vista is one of elegance, with plenty of emphasis on integrating with its surrounding landscape. The beautifully balanced design is an hommage to the former, while the house’s lightweight structure, following the shape of the terrain, makes sure of the latter.
On a steel-framed structure, stone, glass, and wood are expertly woven together to create a symmetry that continually improves on one another. Wooden planks of slightly different hues form a clean, seamless mosaic on the walls and ceiling. Not only that, they lend an impression of unlimited space, while at the same time offering some balance to the bright and luxurious interior of the house.
The brain child of a Brazilian architectural firm with international renown, Fernanda Marques Arquitetos Associados, Fazenda Boa Vista is a pinnacle of elegance with its long, sweeping lines. Many large openings allow a lavish view of its surroundings, including but not limited to a nearby lake and golf course. At sunset, another kind of splendor is revealed as the house is completely permeated by light and beautiful reflections shimmer on the water of the swimming pool.
Beauty and luxury in one stunning design, Fazenda Boa Vista is an abode fit for a star.
House without Borders
Rostov Oblast, Russia
If some houses are content to bask in beauty and public attention, this one lies at the other end of the spectrum. The appropriately named, House without Borders tries to dispense with the concept of borders as much as possible in order to offer its owner freedom at its purest and most simple.
One effective way to ‘erase’ the borders of a house is by using panoramic windows and this is what Architectural Studio Chado did. Large floor-to-ceiling windows substitute most of the outer walls, allowing the surrounding nature to really become part of the house. The absence of conventional walls also serves to expand the modest 390-sqm size of the building by incorporating the boundlessness of nature outside. The ceiling, stripped down to the ‘bare’ skeleton of the roof, further conveys the sense of honesty and liberation in the design.
As for the interior, hand-molded bricks bring a taste of nature inside the house. Dark-colored furniture with occasional bright yet subtle accents from upholstery and ceramics blends gracefully with the existing palette. A fireplace occupies a central role, flanked by large, stained-glass windows on each side to allow the freedom of opening and closing them depending on the weather.
In their most conventional sense, borders exist to allow some privacy. House without Borders challenges this concept and turns it on its axis by stating that the ultimate kind of privacy is “the privacy to be free”. Stars who have too little freedom and personal space in their lives will no doubt appreciate this kind of privacy—not by confining themselves between thick, restricting walls, but by an act of liberation, with endless nature only a curtain’s opening away.
Haus 33
Vienna, Austria
Perched at the summit of Pötzleinsdorf mountain, with a view over the city of Vienna, is Haus 33. Its carefully-chosen location, both within the perimeter of a bustling metropolis as well as immersed in a green, country atmosphere, reflects the concept of the house itself, which is the best of both worlds.
In this three-story building, architect Zoran Bodrozic has skillfully combined aspects of modernism and nature to create a masterpiece. The interior’s minimalist style and the predominantly black-and-white color palette satisfy the clean, modern angles of the place. On the other hand, the clever use of wood as part of the décor, the gentle sound of water from both outdoor and indoor swimming pools, and the green belt of trees which surround the house, provide more than enough presence of nature to balance it out.
Haus 33 is a house that answers to the duality of humanity. It fulfills a person’s need for social life and solitude, urban and rural, noise and quiet, people and self.
