Tangram House by Tetro Architecture is a lakeside residence in Lagoa Santa, near Belo Horizonte, designed around a triangular plan and a laminated-timber roof that opens the home toward the water. Built on the highest point of a sloped plot, the house uses retaining walls, landscaped embankments, and broad glazing to separate domestic life from the street while extending it toward the lake.
Tangram House: A triangular timber roof home oriented toward landscape and horizon
Tangram House by Tetro Architecture is a lakeside residence in Lagoa Santa, near Belo Horizonte, designed around a triangular plan and a laminated-timber roof that opens the home toward the water. Built on the highest point of a sloped plot, the house uses retaining walls, landscaped embankments, and broad glazing to separate domestic life from the street while extending it toward the lake.
Retaining walls, landscaped embankments, and the controlled positioning of the built mass establish a threshold that shields daily life from urban movement, leaving only trees, lawn, and the lake in view. The project is strongest in the way it turns topography, structure, and horizon into a single architectural system.
Tangram House is structured around a triangular configuration that directs both spatial organization and the roof geometry. The glued laminated timber roof unfolds into a constellation of angular planes that form a unified shelter. Toward the street, this canopy maintains privacy and filters exterior perception.
Toward the lake, it widens into open gestures that release views and reinforce orientation. Skylights cut through the roof volume, admitting daylight with calibrated intensity and illuminating upper-level living areas and circulation with a measured rhythm that aligns with the studio’s approach to material clarity.
A mixed structural system reinforces the project’s identity. Timber elements shape the roof and verandas with a sense of lightness, while exposed concrete slabs and walls introduce tectonic stability.
Stone retaining walls ground the structure into the slope, creating a relationship between architecture and topography that feels deliberate rather than decorative. Each material participates in a balanced composition that prioritizes permanence and spatial coherence of Tangram House.
Social areas occupy the lower level, positioned toward the lake behind generous glass panes and deep verandas. Living room, kitchen, gourmet zone, wine cellar, and swimming pool form an interconnected sequence focused on exterior continuity.
Part of this program inhabits the retaining wall itself, placing the support kitchen, bathroom, and wine cellar within a constructed thickness that links the house to the earth. The pool’s surface visually extends the lake, allowing the exterior to function as a natural extension of the interior.
The upper floor contains the private wing with a family room and five bedrooms. Sheltered by the roof’s wide eave and set back from the street, these rooms maintain consistent visual connection to the landscape. Nature becomes the constant frame for everyday activities, clarifying the project’s intent to distance domestic life from urban stimuli.
Through geometric precision and measured openness, Tetro Architecture positions Tangram House not as an isolated structure but as a passage into the surrounding environment. Its horizontal line meets the horizon, and its triangular roof advances gently toward the lake, forming a residence defined by light, air, and water. Within the studio’s residential language, Lanterna House offers a related study in how landscape and shelter are held in balance.
Photography by Manoel Sá, with courtesy of Tetro Architecture, shared with permission
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