An Invitation to Enjoy Nature in Caniçada House

Caniçada House attains a relationship of “very great respect with the place”, and guarantees a visual permeability between the arrival path and the Caniçada reservoir in Vieira do Minho (Portugal). During the film, the architect Carvalho Araújo explains that the main aim of this project: was to minimize the intervention in the surroundings to guarantee the valorization of the site. The most intimate program is located on the highest floor, while the social spaces are on the remaining two. The middle floor is where the house takes on greater expression through two large openings in opposite facades. One of the facades ensures the entrance to the house, and the other “frames” the landscape: “We chose minimalist windows, which interfere as little as possible in terms of obstacles and have contact with outward. It is here, in this space, that you feel the place. You feel the sound of the water, and you have a closeness to the vegetation”. The film portrays this “great relationship between the interior and the exterior” of the house, and the characters’ path reveals the “great transparency, which is the strong identity of the house”: “I venture to say that it is a brave architecture because, in fact, it is very simple”, emphasizes the architect.

[client]
OTIIMA | Much more than a Window

[project]
Atelier Carvalho Araújo

[film]
Building Pictures and Architecture Hunter

[directed by]
Sara Nunes

[camera]
Sara Nunes

[edition]
Sara Nunes and Diogo Cunha

[interviewed]
José Manuel Carvalho Araújo

[extra]
Mariana Bessa

[sound design]
Ana Pedro

[subtitles]
Eva Magro

[cover image]
NUDO