Articles by Susanna Moreira

On a rocky outcrop overlooking Lake Memphremagog, two blocks of wood gently harmonize with their surroundings. Two rectangular volumes, one laid atop the other, form a house. The first block resembles a bridge between two plateaux, straddling a natural gully that continues to drain runoff from heavy rains.

Liten Hytte is located on the shore of Lake Michigan, near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The area is a popular summer destination, with modest clapboard cabins and cottages within easy walking distance of the pristine beaches and clear waters of the lake.

A compact garden suite in Toronto’s Sunnybrook Park area, Copper House is designed to allow an aging homeowner to remain in place while creating a second dwelling where her adult children can return independently.

The human being, while inhabiting, is a being that dwells. The lived house carries the notion of belonging and reveals the essence of those who reside within it. It is here that relationships are built, dreams are projected, and memories and imaginaries are evoked.

Nestled between the sea and the hinterland, Pernambuco’s Zona da Mata region is characterized by a humid tropical climate and the dense vegetation of the Atlantic Forest. Built upon this fertile soil, the architecture emerges from a poetic contrast, rejecting formulas and asserting that the Northeast reveals new nuances—without boundaries, limits, or constraints. This linguistic diversity resonates with inventiveness and respect for tradition, a dialectic that defies predictability but establishes new paradigms.

Set in a wooded area, Casa MKN was designed with the premise of preserving the existing large trees, guiding the layout and configuration of the volumes so that the architecture respects the original landscaping of the lot. The project is based on the principle of maximizing the preservation of vegetation and establishing a direct relationship between the construction and nature. As a result, the house is structured in two main levels and a rooftop, distributed in a horizontal volume characterized by straight lines, continuous planes, and wide eaves that reinforce the contemporary reading of the residence.

Buildings associated with death, conceived or inspired by funerary rituals and practices, have given rise throughout history to some of architecture’s most significant achievements. The desire to preserve memory has always inspired the design of funerary spaces that explore territories of ambiguity: between earth and sky; light and matter; the telluric and the ethereal; the present and the timeless. In their materials, textures, scales, and forms, these buildings resist the passage of time and assert themselves as timeless constructions.