Portas Novas by Victor Cañas Arquitecto
Portas novas House by Victor Cañas architects is situated in Guanacaste, a dry tropical province of Costa Rica. It is perched on a large ledge on the north side of a mountain spine that climbs south parallel to the coastline. On the western side it has a spectacular near 180° view of the Pacific Ocean and it’s coast line and to the inland side of the spine it looks over a small valley. This means that the house has two very different view: the openness of the horizon with the sunset to the west and the more intimate but still very wide view of mountainside and isolated neighbors to the east.
The long plan is a response to the linear topography of the re-leveled lot, that means the house is predominantly on the level with an access road from the main mountain side of the south. From this road, all you see of the house is a higher than wall height two leaf aluminum clad gate and a small surrounding wall.
From here you access the courtyard which opens out to the eastern hills and the view to the sea is nearly blocked altogether by the white volumes of the tree guest rooms to the west and the main body of the house to the north. From here you can start to see the elements which make up the language of the building, three long white triangular volumes of the roof of the guest rooms floating above the white white rectangular volumes to let the light into the interior on the underside of the roof and make it seam to float.
6 Responses to “Portas Novas by Victor Cañas Arquitecto”
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July 29th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Hi Chantal,
Very nice “talking” 2 U. I´m a fan of your blog, it seems very interesting. I liked also the re-design of it. But in the last 2 posts, we can´t see the images…
I’ve been to NYC this June, and it was fantastic. I presume you are from NY…
Best regards
By the way, i´m from Lisbon, Portugal
Bye
July 29th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Hi,
Thank you very much. I don’t understand why you can’t see the images. It’s probably because you need a plugin to watch video because I don’t see any other problem.
Thanks,
Chantal
July 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Hi Rui,
I can see the images without problem. Like Chantal said, maybe you’ve got a problem with your video plugins.
By the way, I’m from Portugal too. Parabens!
July 29th, 2008 at 8:03 am
OK!
Still, I can see the images of the last posts, but not that particular two.
But, if i enter in the post details e can see the other fotos, so no problem.
A hug to you Phil, my “neighbour” and a kissy for Chantal.
Bye
December 24th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
[...] De Victor Cañas. Via CubeMe. [...]
October 19th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Greetings, just meandered by. Good post. Cya.