Project Name: Galeriah House

Location: São José dos Campos, Brazil

Design Team: Okha arquitetura e design

Lead Architect: Priscila Pereira

Building Area: 880 m²

Completion Year: 2024

Photography: Nelson Kon

Feature：

Project - Brazilian architecture studio Okha arquitetura e design has completed a sculptural residence in São José dos Campos that challenges conventional residential geometry through its angular projections and dynamic facade elements.

Named Galeriah House, the 880-square-metre dwelling was conceived during the pandemic for a couple seeking to maximize their connection to outdoor spaces. The house's distinctive form is characterized by its deliberately non-orthogonal volumes and a sophisticated second skin of aluminum brise-soleil modules that create an ever-changing internal facade.

The project's most striking feature is its multifunctional gallery space – from which the house derives its name – designed with uninterrupted walls specifically for displaying the owners' art collection. This dedication to art curation extends throughout the house's materiality, where architect Priscila Pereira employed a restrained palette dominated by Cosentino's Dekton surfaces in contrasting tones of coffee and light neutral.

The two-storey residence orchestrates a fluid progression of spaces, beginning with a coffee-toned arrival module that transitions into lighter, airier volumes. The upper level houses a gym with views over preserved greenery, connected to both the master suite and ground-floor leisure areas via a sculptural spiral staircase.

Responding to the site's flat topology near the Paraíba River, the design maximizes indoor-outdoor living through generous openings that connect interior spaces to a substantial leisure area featuring a swimming pool. The western facade's modular brise-soleil system serves dual purposes – offering privacy to the bedrooms while creating dynamic light patterns throughout the day.

The project exemplifies contemporary Brazilian residential architecture's ability to balance privacy with openness, formal sophistication with functional clarity, and artistic expression with practical living spaces.

Design Team - Founded in 2010 by architect Priscila Pereira, Okha arquitetura e design has established itself as a significant force in contemporary Brazilian architecture. The firm's name, derived from "Oca" - meaning a traditional indigenous dwelling without internal divisions - reflects their philosophy of creating cohesive, integrated spatial experiences.

Based in São José dos Campos, the practice evolved from Pereira's early architectural observations in Ubatuba during the 1980s to become a multidisciplinary studio specializing in high-end residential and commercial projects. Pereira, who graduated from Universidade Braz Cubas in 2001, leads the firm alongside key team members including Cristiane Zanella from Universidade de Taubaté and Ana Beatriz de Paula from Universidade do Vale do Paraíba.

The studio's design methodology emphasizes spatial fluidity and user-centric solutions, demonstrated in projects like the recently completed Galeriah House (2024). Their work is characterized by a sophisticated understanding of volumetric composition, material articulation, and environmental integration.

Okha's portfolio showcases their expertise in creating architecturally bold yet contextually sensitive designs. The practice has developed a distinctive architectural language that combines Brazilian modernist traditions with contemporary spatial innovations, establishing themselves as a noteworthy contributor to Brazil's architectural discourse.