Building Pictures has released a film about the most recent project of the architect Guilherme Machado Vaz, portraying the last day of summer at "Casa em Afife".

The film starts by contextualizing the house, with the landscape of Portugal’s North Coast, and begins to get closer, until entering into the interior of a compact and vertical volume. As the architect mentions it, “it evokes the essence of a traditional construction type of Minho”.

"Somewhere in Afife" is defined by the camera movements, the movements of the people and the movements of the facade throughout a day in the house. When the shutters are closed, as the architect says, "the facade is the negation of itself, it is an anti-facade" an abstract white cube without any gaps. 

When the shutters are opened, they reveal an interior with different materialities that is inspired by vernacular architecture. The shutthers of the south elevation (facing the chapel) invoke the golden carving and also remind, in an abstract way, the medieval religious paintings in a triptych.

While being guided by the steps of a character, we discover the interior of the house, which evolves on half floors - a clear reference to the architect Adolf Loos.

The film ends with nightly pictures of the house, revealing the illumination of its interior and the circular pool.

All images courtesy of Building Pictures

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