August 16, 2026 | DESIGN & INTERIORS
BIRIBINHAS HOUSE
words Noah Mercer
photos Fernando Guerra
On Brazil’s Iporanga Beach, Studio MK27 and Rodrigo Oliveira Paisagismo blur the edges of a coastal house, using architecture and dense tropical planting to negotiate light, privacy and life by the sea.
On a rare stretch of the São Paulo coastline where the Atlantic Forest remains dense, Biribinhas House sits among tropical vegetation close to Iporanga Beach. Designed by Studio MK27, with landscape architecture by Rodrigo Oliveira Paisagismo, the house was completed in 2025 as a place for gathering and spending time by the sea.
The owners already knew the site well. They had lived for around ten years in an earlier house on the same plot before deciding to replace it. Strict condominium regulations meant the new building had to remain almost entirely within the footprint previously approved, giving the architects a fixed perimeter within which to rethink the relationship between the house and its surroundings.
The resulting architecture is open, horizontal and extensively glazed. But on a corner plot, that transparency raised an obvious question: how could the house remain connected to the landscape without leaving its interiors exposed? The answer came largely through planting.
A DOMESTIC FOREST
Rather than treating the garden as something to be viewed from the house, Rodrigo Oliveira Paisagismo brought it close to the architecture. Dense layers of planting form what the landscape team describes as a kind of domestic forest, wrapping the residence while filtering views from outside.
The planting is deliberately loose. Native and tropical species appear at different heights and densities, avoiding rigid compositions in favour of something closer to the irregular rhythm of the surrounding Atlantic Forest. At the edges of the corner plot, planting becomes taller and denser, replacing hard visual barriers with layers that filter views, wind and light.
This is particularly apparent on the ground floor, where glass surrounds the social spaces. Living areas and verandas open directly to the garden, with tropical foliage reaching towards the façade. Reflections of leaves, shadows and interiors overlap across the glass; at certain moments, the boundary between room and garden becomes difficult to locate.
At the centre, a more opaque volume containing the kitchen and service areas provides a counterweight to this transparency. Outside, stone paths disappear into the planting, guiding movement around the house without imposing a formal route through the garden.
BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADE
The landscape works closely with Studio MK27’s material palette. Inside, beige tones, timber and finely textured mineral surfaces establish a quiet base, while pebble flooring recalls sand and natural ground. The garden continues rather than interrupts this material language.
Above the transparent ground floor, a long horizontal volume appears to float over the vegetation and contains the bedrooms. Here the relationship with the landscape becomes more filtered. The canopy of biribinhas — the slender-branched trees that give the house its name — casts moving shadows over timber surfaces, creating a layer between the rooms and the forest outside.
Movable panels add another degree of control. Opened, they allow air to pass through and reveal partial views of the vegetation; closed, they reduce sunlight and create a darker, more private atmosphere. The character of the upper floor shifts with the time of day.
A GARDEN TO MOVE THROUGH
Around the social areas, planting opens up, connecting the terraces, pool and garden. Towards the boundaries, it thickens for privacy. The pool sits between the two, almost like a clearing framed by tropical foliage.
This changing density shapes movement through the garden, shifting from sun to shade, open areas to sheltered passages, and architecture to vegetation.
At Biribinhas House, the garden is neither background nor decoration. It provides privacy, filters light and connects the spaces. Studio MK27 opens the architecture to the landscape; Rodrigo Oliveira’s planting makes that openness possible.
