Casa Nau 64 Rewrites Courtyard Living — Between Pines And Lagoon Light
Casa Nau 64 settles beside the Óbidos Lagoon in Portugal, where [i]da arquitectos aligns the house with stone pines and wind off the water. The project organizes a single-family house into measured horizontal layers that answer sun, shelter, and garden in equal measure, turning a tight coastal plot into a quiet, outward-looking retreat.
From the lagoon, the house reads as a calm line drawn against the tall stone pines. Light skims the sand-toned planes, catching edges where terraces fold toward the garden.
Casa Nau 64 is a house in Óbidos, Portugal, designed by [i]da arquitectos as a horizontal counterpoint to the surrounding forest of pinus pinea. The project treats nature and climate as primary constraints, stacking three planes to tune garden, wind protection, and sun while framing the nearby water. Architecture here acts less as object and more as terrain, extending the ground into domestic life.
Set just meters from the Óbidos Lagoon, the plot leans into the National Ecological Reserve that lines its southern edge. Rather than compete with the vertical trunks, the house presses low and long, using horizontality to underline the tree rhythm instead of interrupting it.
Stacking Planes With Purpose
Three superposed horizontal planes organize the volume and shape how the house meets its setting. The lower level sits partially sunk into the ground for garage and technical areas, with a patio that draws daylight and ventilation down while quietly accommodating equipment. Above, the entrance plane rises gently from the existing topography, turning the approach into a slow ramped sequence that prepares the domestic threshold. At the uppermost level, the volume recedes to yield a broad terrace plane, letting garden, roofline, and lagoon air intersect in one continuous outdoor room.
Terraces Oriented To Climate
Each plane responds directly to light, sun path, and the region’s strong winds. The entrance level tucks under a cantilevered canopy that shelters the front door and tempers gusts, sharpening the transition from exterior to interior. On the terrace above, planters act as low windbreaks while pulling vegetation right to the edge of daily routines, so living stretches outdoors without exposure. Horizontal lines stay clear; only the chimney rises as a singular vertical marker against the sky.
Interior Life Across Three Levels
Inside, the layout separates social and private realms while keeping contact with the garden and terrace at every step. The ground floor opens through large glazed spans to the surrounding greenery, with porches and pergolas softening light and editing direct sun. A centrally placed kitchen holds the plan together, linking entrance, living area, and garden in one continuous circulation loop that encourages movement rather than isolated rooms. Above, three suites line the terrace edge, each with doors to the open air and views out to the lagoon landscape.
Material Ties To Lagoon And Pines
Material choices reinforce the bond between house, lagoon, and forest. Exterior walls receive slaked lime with inorganic sand-toned pigmentation, giving the volumes a mineral presence that picks up surrounding earth colors. Wooden shutters run along the facades, extending the horizontal reading while shading glass from direct solar gain and controlling interior heat. When closed, their natural wood grain echoes the pine trunks; when open, they stack as linear bands that keep the architecture legible against foliage.
As day cools, the terraces hold the last light while the pine silhouettes sharpen behind the sand-colored planes. The house stays low, anchored in its garden and oriented to air, sun, and shade. Casa Nau 64 rests not as a solitary object but as one more measured layer in the lagoon’s long, horizontal edge.
Photography by [i]da arquitectos
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