In a coastal town approximately an hour and a half from Rio de Janeiro, nestled betwixt the chlorophyll-rich forest and glittering blue waters of the sea of Mangaratiba, sits the beautiful Patious house, with a serious architectural pedigree, sensational views, and a landscape design that is the culmination of several garden ideas woven into one.
Patious house is the product Studio MK27, and the landscaping is by designer Rodrigo Oliveira, who could see, right from the very first site visit, that negotiating the sloping topography and the varying visual openings of the land – the dense riparian vegetation on one side and the beach on the other – would be both physically and intellectually challenging.
Part of his approach to forming the design for this plot was a carefully curated list of plants; the result is a garden design that can naturalize easily and still has a discernible integrity. Here we stroll through the garden as Rodrigo shares some of the combinations of plants he uses in his design.
Patious House
The house is split into two single-storey buildings, connected by a central courtyard garden.
One building opens up to ocean vistas, the other houses the bedroom suites, each with its private courtyard, too.
As you arrive, the garden unfurls slowly in front of you. The central courtyard garden is the heart of the project, with a fire pit, entertaining areas, and views slicing through the centre of the house.
The courtyard garden
The plant composition blends species of varying sizes, all sitting intermingled, cheek and jowl, with no rigid hierarchies.
Instead of being planted in fixed layers, they are planted freely, so there is a constant presence of greenery and the garden remains illuminated even with the dense vegetation, as a result of the careful scaling between species.
Among the masses of evergreen ferns, three specimens of the majestic Brazilian Mulungu tree (Erythrina verna) emerge.
These are beautiful trees that punctuate the space perfectly, growing up to 39ft tall and producing a profusion of coral red flowers over summer.
According to Rodrigo Oliveira, the courtyard was 'conceived as if a bird had scattered seeds by chance, creating a spontaneous, organic, and welcoming garden – as if it had always been there.'
The kitchen-dining room opens out to the courtyard for entertaining all year round.
The plants chosen have a propensity to grow rigorously and retain dark, rich green leaves, so to create a space with year round good looks and no discernible seasons.
The ocean facing garden
Walk through the house, and you are now greeted by magnificent horizons out to sea. A whole different microclimate altogether.
The spectacular views do most of the talking here, but Rodrigo's strategic planting makes you feel as though you're immersed in planting with no boundaries. An illusion that is far harder to pull off than it might seem.
A Sunshade Tree (Terminalia catappa) was chosen for this section, for its slender trunk and light canopy, that casts gentle, light dappled shade without blocking the landscape.
Along the sides, flower beds with fruit-bearing species and medium-sized trees preserve privacy from neighboring residences.
Private courtyards
Many of the bedrooms throughout the house have their very own private courtyard, each of which Rodrigo tackled with equal aplomb.
Each of these courtyards was intended to be a hushed, soothing space offering a private refuge- a place to feel secure amidst raw nature.
The plants used to achieve this include the Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa), rabbit’s foot fern (Davallia fejeensis), which looks tremendously sculptural with its hairy ribbed leaves, somewhat tarantula-like, and wavy-leaf philodendron (Philodendron undulatum), which is perfectly suited to indoor jungle gardens.
All of these plants are evergreen, and all are happy in the humid, oftentimes muggy, climate in this area.
Around the courtyard and walkways, humidity-tolerant plants have been used in abundance.
These include rhapis palm (Rhapis excelsa), macarthur palm (Ptychosperma macarthurii), and clever groundcover plants have been utilized with the likes of green liriope (Liriope spicata), mini pilea (Pilea glauca), and even, most unusually, walking iris (Neomarica candida).
Other uncommon tropical perennials can be discovered here, such as red ginger (Alpinia purpurata), which blooms year-round in warm climates, and an enormous variety of philodendron, including split-leaf philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum), wavy-leaf philodendron (Philodendron undulatum), and xanadu philodendron (Philodendron xanadu).
Shop plants in this garden
If you have a shaded spot in your garden where most things won't grow, try this wonderful evergreen fern which will tolerate almost any conditions thrown at it.
If you are creating a tropical garden of any kind or size, a Monstera deliciosa plant, aka the Split Leaf Philodendron or Swiss Cheese Plant, is a must grow!
A fabulous and unusual plant to grow in tropical gardens with high levels of humidity. It always catches the eye with that wonderful bombastic vermillion red sticking out from the glossy green foliage.
This design is so rich, so verdant, and so gloriously green, it brings you into an almost meditative state of mind.
Home to some of the very best tropical plants, interspersed with grasses, ferns, and trees, each perfectly judged for an equatorial landscape, this garden design is a lesson in carefully managed reduction and complex planning that delivers a decidedly uncomplicated, quietened feeling when in situ.
