ASPIREDESIGNANDHOME.COM 65 64 SUMMER 2026 LEFT The seating area of the open-plan Casa Alto Paraíso features a built-in sofa, a Noguchi coffee table, and a chair made by artisans through the Amazon Coastal Observatory (OCA) next to one of Vollebregt’s pendant sculptures. ABOVE Inside one of the arched windows of Casa Arco is a painting by São Paulo jeweler Cristina Pessoa above an upholstered bench Vollebregt used in an exhibition, and a table made of found wood and recycled fence posts. The pendant is by an artist in Bahia. Meanwhile, they had built Casa Alto Paraíso, a 6460-square-foot, three- bedroom, steel and stone structure, between 2010 and 2012. Perched almost 3,300 feet up the slope, it became the main dwelling. Its roofline follows the incline of the surrounding mountains and, like Arco, boasts interior windows and other features that are semicircular or round. When Vollebregt validated her architectural degree at the University of Brasília, one of her professors noticed a natural – and to Vollebregt as yet unbeknown – affinity with the work of the famous Brazilian midcentury designer Lina Bo Bardi, who also employed curvaceous forms. Finally, there is Casa Cabana, made of adobe and recycled materials, which was constructed on the site of a former shed. O.Sítio took years to complete, mainly, Vollebregt notes, “because I was working with local people who could not read architectural plans.” When they dug an access road to the property, she recalls, instead of the earthmover she expected, a group of workers showed up in flip-flops with shovels. The family rents out the buildings selectively when they are in Amsterdam.