Du Plessis House

By Marcio Kogan - 11 January 2010

7.00 in the morning. We are deciding whether to make the trip to take photos of the Du Plessis house, 400 kilometers from São Paulo and 15 kilometers from the historic city of Paraty, Rio de Janeiro. It is raining non-stop.
We risk it. 4 hours later and we are already there. I haven´t yet seen the house completely finished. It moves me. On the outside, a large box made of mineira-stone (a typical Brazilian stone), surrounding an inner-patio with four jabuticabeira trees which, interestingly enough, is not only my favorite tree but its fruit is also my favorite. The flooring of the house is cement with small swirling pebbles. I think it looks good. The natural wood “mushrabiyya” sliding panels (the typical wooden grate of Arabian windows) filtering the light in the room have been very well done. I don´t know if it´s "good" to use adjectives in a descriptive report, but that´s what I think.
The photographer likes the fact that the house is modern on the outside but, looking through the patio, is traditional. I explain that according to condominium regulations, houses must have clay tile covering, and this is how we interpreted the rule, or rather, we got round it - our way.
The weather is more like Iceland than a tropical beach, but we begin photographing anyway. At night we go to Paraty. The city is wonderful. We stay at an inn which even has monkeys in its tropical garden. At night I dream of the appearance of an angel. I have never had a religious dream before. Maybe this has something to do with the austere decoration of the room which looks like a convent. In the morning we go back to the house and find some sunlight. We head back. Our return to São Paulo is shocking. The city is simply appalling. Sign of the cross.

Marcio Kogan