In my dreams!!!!!!!!!!

Since I was a kid I have always had recurring dreams about futuristic architecture, often they would be giant structures made from glass with vines and roots. These dreams were a combination of my love for Aldous Huxley books and films like Laputa (castle in the sky) and Labyrinth. I came across the Portugese architect Álvaro Leite Siza Vieira's dream home Casa fez. 

words:LadyLuck

We have all seen more than enough of the stacked-boxes genre of architecture. Boring, cold, uninviting, uninhabitable and so last decade.

Yet, once in a while, a set of images crosses our desks of a project that could potentially fall into the has-been category but doesn’t, and instead makes us look again and ponder the beauty of great architecture.

This is the case with Casa Fez, a new house in Porto, Portugal, designed by Álvaro Leite Siza Vieira.

 From some angles, we see glimpses of Tomorrowland, but we are willing to overlook that because from so many other viewpoints, the statuesque poise of the structure and the stark clarity of lines brings back memories of Alvar Aalto. One can almost imagine this house in the birch forests of Finland.

 Architect Álvaro Leite Siza Vieira, who was born in 1962 in Porto, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Escola do Porto in 1994. He has an impressive pedigree that includes touches of Finland, and that which perhaps explains the Aalto-like feel of this house.

He is the son of one of the best-known Portuguese architects, Álvaro Siza Vieira www.alvarosizavieira.com, winner of the 1992 Pritzker Prize and the 1988 Alvar Aalto Medal, among many other accolades.

 Father and son collaborated in the creation of their competition entry for the Museum of Contemporary Art, KIASMA, in Helsinki in 1992 (won by American architect Steven Holl.)

 Natural light, wooden floors, unadorned windows all add up to a simplicity that resembles a gallery, museum or concert hall. Casa Fez does not pretend to be a cozy home, but is instead a statement residence that fits the owners’ lifestyle. - Tuija Seipell