This Rooftop Greenhouse Is the Ideal Work-From-Home Space for a Plant-Loving Uruguayan Couple
Amalia Branaa Donner and Uzi Sabah renovated a midcentury house to embrace nature—with the help of an architect they found in Dwell.
Amalia Branaa Donner and Uzi Sabah renovated a midcentury house to embrace nature—with the help of an architect they found in Dwell.
When Amalia Branaa Donner and Uzi Sabah moved from Los Angeles to Montevideo, Uruguay, their hometown, at the height of the pandemic, they had to find a rental quickly. They had moved back because Covid was less prevalent there, and they wanted to reconnect with family. A brisk search led them to a house in a residential area that had been off their radar: Punta Gorda, a neighborhood built on a low hill overlooking Montevideo’s riverside promenade, known as La Rambla.
Plants surround a 1950s home in Montevideo that Amalia Branaa Donner and Uzi Sabah renovated for their family of four. The couple, who remodeled several homes while living in the U.S. and own and design a clothing line called New Braves, were closely involved in the renovation, which was led by architects Matías Carballal and Mauricio López of Montevideo design studio FROM. "We came every day to the construction site and chose everything," says Amalia.
Photo: Aldo Lanzi
The couple enjoyed staying there and, during one of their afternoon walks, noticed a midcentury house that was uninhabited—and for sale. It had a simple, rectangular exterior, and because it was built on a slope, the back of the property had views over the neighborhood’s rooftops and treetops and all the way down to the Rio de la Plata in the distance. It also had a huge garage occupying the entire ground level, which they immediately envisioned as a living space.
They decided to buy it, but they needed an architect to help them transform the two-story structure, built in 1950 and never renovated, into a contemporary family home for themselves and their two children, now 10 and 8. Amalia and Uzi are both creatives—she’s a graphic designer, he’s a filmmaker and an artist—so they wanted to work with someone willing to push the boundaries of convention.
An open kitchen, dining, and living area, plus a powder room, takes up the entire ground level, which was previously a garage. The cabinetry is made of Ambay plywood, and the floor is poured terrazzo.
Photo: Aldo Lanzi
"Everything was the way it had been designed in the ’50s—the closets, kitchen, bathrooms all were from that era, and small."
—Uzi Sabah, resident
Guardrails line the second-floor family room, which features wall-to-wall sliding glass windows. The minimal furnishings include a Barcelona chair and a Togo sofa, with a green cube containing a powder room at one end. Three bedrooms and the balance of the bathroom are discreetly tucked behind a sleek wall. "The skeleton of the house is exactly the same as it was before," says Uzi of the transformative redesign. "All the beams were kept."
Photo: Aldo Lanzi
See the full story on Dwell.com: This Rooftop Greenhouse Is the Ideal Work-From-Home Space for a Plant-Loving Uruguayan Couple
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