Putting down roots in the Brazilian forest

A stunning Scandi-style home near Rio is at one with its natural surroundings

Engineer Breno Bulus had long coveted his neighbour’s land, with its ancient forest and gardens in prime position overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s Pedra da Gávea mountain and the capital’s sparkling coastline. Situated in Itanhanga, 20km west of Rio, when the plot came up for sale in 2020, Breno snapped it up. Two years later, he and his wife, Priscilla, a gynaecologist, and their children, Antônia, 12, and Nuno, 8, moved into their purpose-built Scandinavian-inspired cabin and tropical landscaped garden.

“I had always dreamed of living on a farm and this piece of land was our chance to live in a country house in the middle of the city,” says Breno, owner of the footwear chain Outer and, inspired by his new garden, an super-comfortable outdoor furniture range, Memo. With the help of architects Bel Lobo and Mariana Travassos (Be.Bo Arquitetura) who had designed the Outer shops, Breno wanted to create “a forest in the middle of an urban environment and to live within it. The idea was to create a very natural and primitive-looking garden and a very contemporary house. I like the contrast between the organic and natural and the urban and straight.”

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