Located outside São Paulo in Porto Feliz, Casa Lee is a single-storey residence that stretches across the width of its site to accommodate a large open-plan living room, four bedrooms, a guest suite and a gym within its walls.

Studio MK27 positioned the living and dining room at the centre of the plan, where it can be opened out to the garden on both sides using a series of sliding panels. This allows cross ventilation and also connects the room with a decked terrace and swimming pool running along in front.

The two wooden box-like volumes sit either side of the living room and accommodate recessed bar and kitchen areas. One also contains the guest suite, while the other encases a row of bedrooms, a bathroom and the gym.

The timber walls of the boxes comprise louvred mashrabiya panels, designed to allow ventilation whilst maintaining privacy.

The gym and sauna are located at the far end of the building. Glazed walls slide open on one side of the rooms, leading out to a small secondary terrace and private pool.

Studio MK27's Eduardo Glycerio designed furniture especially for the house and worked alongside interior designer Diana Radomysler to plan the fittings for each of the rooms.

Led by architect Marcio Kogan, Studio MK27 has completed a few houses in São Paulo recently, including the chunky concrete Casa Cubo and the timber and glass Toblerone House, which was filmed through the eyes of the client's pet cat. See more design by Studio MK27.

See more architecture in Brazil, including the new museum of art in Rio.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here's some project details from the architects:

Project: Lee House
Location: Porto Feliz, SP, Brazil

Project: October 2008
Completion: October 2012
Site area: 4000 sqm
Built area: 900 sqm

Architecture: Studio MK27
Architect: Marcio Kogan
Co-architect: Eduardo Glycerio
Interior design: Diana Radomysler

Custom-designed furniture: Eduardo Glycerio, Carolina Castroviejo
Collaborator: Ricardo Ariza
Team: Beatriz Meyer, Carlos Costa, Carolina Castroviejo, Eduardo Glycerio, Eduardo Gurian, Elisa Friedmann, Gabriel Kogan, Lair Reis, Luciana Antunes, Marcio Tanaka, Maria Cristina Motta, Mariana simas, Oswaldo Pessano, Renata Furlanetto, Samanta Cafardo, Suzana Glogowski.

Landscape designer: Gil Fialho
Structure engineer: Benedicts Engenharia
Construction manager: SC Consult
Contractor: Gaia Construtora

Above: ground floor plan - click for larger image

Above: cross-section - click for larger image

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The Museu de Arte do Rio, which opened last month, occupies the renovated interiors of the Palacete Dom João, an early-twentieth-century palace beside Mauá Square in Rio's port. Meanwhile, the Escola do Olhar school is inserted within a former police building and bus station next door.

Inspired by the shape of waves, Bernardes + Jacobsen Arquitetura added an undulating concrete canopy over both of the buildings, sheltering a new outdoor bar and events space on the rooftops.

"We had the challenge of proposing an icon," architect Bernardo Jacobsen told the Rio Times. "The more modern building had two extra floors so we eliminated these to balance the set. Then we built a wave over the two, almost like a flying object."

The museum of art comprises eight double-height galleries, accommodated across four near-identical floors. A ground floor entrance leads in through the centre of the facade, where visitors can either head straight towards the exhibitions or take a lift up to the roof.

The neighbouring school is an elevated structure supported by pilotis. The architects have cleaned up the ground floor area to create a public square, while a small sculpture area is positioned alongside.

Three levels of classrooms, workshops and exhibition rooms begin on the first floor, plus a library and auditorium are located on the fourth floor and a bridge links the two buildings on the next level up.

The Museu de Arte do Rio opened to the public with four eclectic exhibitions of Brazilian and international art.

Above: site plan - click for larger image

The renovated palace won't be the only museum completed ahead of the 2016 Olympic games. The Museum of Image and Sound Rio by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Casa Daros, a museum of Latin American art, by Paulo Mendes da Rocha are also set to open in the next three years. See more architecture in Brazil on Dezeen.

Above: ground floor plan - click for larger image

See more photography by Leonardo Finotti on Dezeen or on the photographer's website.

Above: mezzanine level - click for larger image

Read on for more project details from Jacobsen Arquitetura:

MAR - Art Museum of Rio

Our challenge was to unite three existing buildings with different architectural characteristics to house the Museu de Arte do Rio, the school "A Escola do Olhar" as well as cultural and leisure spaces. The existing buildings, the palace "Palacete Dom João", the police building and the old central bus station of Rio, connected shall be part of the major urban redevelopment in the historic downtown of Rio de Janeiro. For each construction we analysed different levels of preservation.

Above: first floor plan - click for larger image

The first step was to establish a flow system allowing the Museum and school to work in an integrated and efficient manner. Therefore we proposed the creation of a suspended square on the police building rooftop, which will unite all accesses and host a bar and an area for cultural events and leisure. Consequently, the visitation will be from top to bottom.

Above: second floor plan - click for larger image

It was established that the palace, due to its large ceiling height and structure free plan should hold the exhibition areas of the museum. The police building shall be used for the school, auditoriums, multimedia exhibition areas, administration areas and employee areas of the complex.

Above: third floor plan - click for larger image

The stilts, currently used as an access to the road, will turn into a large foyer for entire complex, and will hold the sculpture exhibition areas. Access will be controlled between the two buildings, characterizing this empty space as internal, open and covered. The marquee of the Road, heritage element listed by the City, will be used for lavatories, store and region of loading, unloading and deposits.

Above: fourth floor plan - click for larger image

The connection and circulation of visitors between the two buildings, in the form of a suspended catwalk will belong to this new building, featuring the most unusual state possible.

Above: fifth floor plan - click for larger image

For the police building, we propose the suspension of the last floor to balance the height of the two buildings as well as the replacement of the masonry closing façade profiles using translucent glass, making the structural system of indented columns visible and revealing the stilts.

Above: sixth floor plan - click for larger image

Finally as the main mark of the project, we suggested that the suspended square have an abstract and aerial form. A fluid and extremely light structure, simulating water surface waves. A poetic architectural character full of meaning, simple and at the same time modern in regards to the structural calculation. This element shall be seen near and by far, and from below to who is arriving at the Praça Mauá, from above by those who are at the Morro da Conceição.

Above: cross-section - click for larger image

Above: elevation - click for larger image

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News: the Rio de Janeiro stadium that was set to host athletics tournaments during the 2016 Olympics has been closed indefinitely due to structural problems.

The Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium, known locally as the Engenhao, will have to undergo roof repairs before it can be declared fit for use.

Rio's mayor Eduardo Paes said he had been told that the structural problems could pose a risk for spectators, depending on the wind speed and temperature.

"On that basis, I immediately decided to close the stadium until we had more details," he told a news conference.

"It's simply not acceptable that a stadium which was inaugurated such a short time ago now has to face this sort of situation."

Designed by architects Carlos Porto and Gilson Santos, the stadium opened late and over budget in 2007 and is currently the city's main football venue while the Maracana Stadium is rebuilt for this year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.

Rio intends to build only nine permanent sites and six temporary venues for the 2016 Olympics in an attempt to avoid the legacy of 'white elephant' sporting venues suffered by former host cities Athens and Beijing.

Other sports venues we've reported on lately include Zaha Hadid Architects' successful bid to design the new national stadium for Japan and a competition-winning design for a football stadium in Ethiopia with stands built into mounds of earth – see all stadiums.

Photograph is by the Brazilian Foreign Office.

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Named Casa Itu, the building is the main residence for a young family with two children. It is two storeys in height, but most of the rooms occupy the ground floor to create a long L-shaped plan.

Studio Arthur Casas used an earthy materials palette of sandy-coloured render and Brazilian teak wood to create a relationship between the house and the surrounding landscape.

"We always try to use local materials," architect Alexandra Kayat told Dezeen. "We used local earth in the mixture of the colour for the facade. We tried to find a colour that would be as close as possible to tones found in the landscape, so the house would fit better in the landscape, as its quite large and horizontal."

The living room sits at the outer corner of the plan, allowing two sides to open out to the garden. A wooden pergola cantilevers out beside it and has now (since the photographs) been fitted with a retractable canopy, while a supporting column is concealed behind the trunk of an indoor tree.

A timber deck stretches out along the edge of the rear elevation, where the architects have installed a swimming pool. From here, a staircase ascends to give access to another terrace on the roof.

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Named Studio R, the three-storey building appears as a stack of concrete volumes with the studio itself occupying the entire ground floor.

Metal screens can fold up and down at both ends to offer the photographer a variety of environments. One reveals a gravel patio, while the other opens out to a plant-filled courtyard.

"The inner space of this photography studio flows into the side gardens of the building and into the urban space, establishing a spatial continuity between the square and the building," says Studio MK27.

A green formica-clad box runs down one side of the studio and conceals a dressing room, toilet and small equipment room. "In this space, there is no interference from the structure," add the architects.

Lighting in the floor highlights the bold colour of the walls and perforated openings let this light filter inside. A floating staircase is hidden behind it with a skylight directly above.

Offices and meeting areas are located on the first floor, where daylight filters in through a wooden mashrabiya screen. Another boxy volume sits in the centre of this floor, containing utility rooms and a second staircase leading up to the top floor.

A red-painted mashrabiya screen lines the edge of the second storey, which is a social room opening out to a rooftop deck. This storey is offset from the two below, creating a cantilever that projects out towards the building's entrance.

The ground floor space has a white resin floor, while wooden flooring gives warmth to the two upper storeys.

Brazilian practice Studio MK27 is led by architect Marcio Kogan. Recent projects include the concrete Casa Cubo, which has no ground-floor walls, and the timber-clad Toblerone House, which was filmed through the eyes of the client's pet cat. See more projects by Studio MK27 or see more architecture in Brazil.

Other photography studios we've featured include one lined with herringbone parquet and one constructed from glass.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here's a project description from Studio MK27:

Studio R

Facing a small urban square, the Loft Studio opens entirely to the outside. The inner space of this photography studio flows into the side gardens of the building and into the urban space, establishing a spatial continuity between the square and the building.

The façade, an aluminum gate is recessed into the concrete binding, integrating the front patio with the square; further, two large swinging metal gates – each more than 11 meters wide – permit fluidity between the gardens and the open space of the studio. Opened, these swinging gates make all visual barriers between internal and external space disappear. Closed, they allow the light in the photography studio to be controlled artificially.

In the opening of the ground floor, there is a box clad in formica-china, where we have the lavatory, dressing room and the technical area. In this space, there is no interference from the structure, which is built into the side walls of the building. Behind the green box, the stairs – lighted by a skylight – leads to the first floor, where we find the offices and the library.

A volume with metallic material organizes all the space on this floor, separating the rooms and corridors. On this floor there is a kitchen the lavatories and the stairs that lead to the top floor. The negative of this volume is the work rooms which can be opened or closed - depending on the desired privacy – through sliding panels which are built into the central box.

In the main office a fixed mashrabiya panel filters the light, while simultaneously opening a beautiful view of the large trees in the square.

On the top floor, there is a social room positioned over the front garden. This space opens with folding wooden panels, painted red, onto a deck where you can once again see the tree tops: a pleasant space for meetings on sunny days.

The material used internally displays an industrial aesthetic, appropriate for the intensive use of a photography studio that needs to constantly transform itself, depending on the situation.

The floor of the large opening is of white resin which also becomes the endless back and the wall. On the other floors, the wooden floor warms the ambient. Externally, the metal doors join the exposed concrete and the different colored wooden panels.

Project: Studio R
Location: São Paulo, Brazil
Project: February 2008
Completion: September 2012
Site area: 338,15sqm
Built area: 373,00sqm

Architecture: Studio MK27
Architect: Marcio Kogan
Co-architect: Gabriel Kogan, Oswaldo Pessano
Customized furniture: Gabriel Kogan, Carolina Gastroviejo

Team: Beatriz Meyer, Diana Radomysler, Eduardo Chalabi, Eduardo Glycerio, Eduardo Gurian, Elisa Friedmann, Gabriel Kogan, Lair Reis, Luciana Antunes, Marcio Tanaka, Maria Cristina Motta, Mariana Ruzante, Mariana Simas, Renata Furlanetto, Samanta Cafardo, Suzana Glogowski
Collaborators: Fernando Falcon, Fabiana Cyon

Landscape architect: Passe_ar Verde, João Fausto Maule Filho
Structure engineer: Leão e Associados, eng. João Rubens Leão
General contractor: Lock Engenharia, eng. Marcelo Ribeiro
Air conditioning: Grau Engenharia
Installations: Grau Engenharia
Gates: S. Naldi

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