25 Green Roofs That Bring Spectacular Homes to New Levels

When a pair of university professors with a newborn baby girl approached João Paulo, founding partner of the São Paulo–based firm Vereda Arquiteto, to build their home on a 1,000-square-meter lot between the Brazilian cities of Salto de Pirapora and Sorocaba, the couple asked for "a house that was very open to the outside [and] would be in contact with nature," says Paulo. The firm’s design plan started with three concrete volumes, each partially submerged in the sloping land, topped with a reinforced concrete slab that shapes the core of the home. The roofs are covered in plantings, some enclosed and some exposed.