Wol Residence

Cast in place against timber boards, the concrete carries the grain of its formwork, and TREO Construction had one pour to get each wall right. Against that textured gray mass, crisp white stucco frames wrap the two garages that flank the entry, a wood-paneled pivot door sits recessed at the center, and vertical aluminum louvers screen the tall window above it.

Inside, the sequence turns vertical. The double-height foyer is lit through horizontal louvers that lay bands of shadow across the stone floor. Dark treads cantilever from a full-height marble wall, and beneath them the stair’s concrete stringer steps down in a sawtooth profile, the facade turned inside out. At its base, the studio and landscape architect Carolina Monteiro set potted plants into a bed of river stones, bringing the garden indoors at the point of arrival.

The living room keeps that height. A wall of vertical wood slats rises two stories behind it, and a gallery bridge crosses overhead, so the upper floor stays present in the room below. At ground level the rear wall slides fully open, and living, dining, and covered terrace become one continuous floor. In the kitchen, a long horizontal window set between walnut and gray cabinetry turns the garden into a living backsplash. Upstairs, grooved paneling runs flush across the hallway doors so they disappear into a single plane.

The primary bathroom is lined in blue-gray honed marble across walls, floor, and counters. In Stephanie Halfen’s words, it feels like walking into a cave of raw stone.

Outside, the upper floor cantilevers over the terrace to form a deep loggia, and a black steel spiral stair climbs the side of the house to the upper balcony. A long, narrow pool runs the length of the lawn toward a raised spa beside the terrace. Because the interior lot has no water view to borrow, the planting builds its own horizon: fishtail palms and podocarpus form a dense green enclosure, and an autograph tree anchors the end of the pool. The result is a house of strength that never feels heavy.