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Playa Vida Residence by Casis Architects Meets Unusual Brief

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In Panama, Casis Architects have built four residences in the Playa Vida Residences to meet an unusual requirement.

They must have timeless beauty.

So the architects work from the theory of “La Idea Construida” of the Spanish architect Alberto Camplo Baeza, who exemplifies eternal beauty in architecture by taking light seriously as a construction element.

Luxury and elegance is explored throughout in the simplest of spaces, all beautifully lit.

The architects paint with light.

Direct unfiltered daylight is seen through a frame that itself diffuses light bathing it from the side.

The deliberate placement of light achieves a serene and eternal quality.

The tropical setting is an advantage, with its light in different qualities and quantities.

At the entrance, a soaring outdoor atrium shelters a stand of palm trees, and in its formal architecture suggests a Victorian conservatory.

This amazing four-storey niche for the mature trees becomes the defining image seen from the street.

A separate dialogue with gravity is created with indoor/outdoor spaces hung within the overarching roof frame.

The architecture is careful, formal; treating both light and gravity as basic construction elements.

Filtered light glides through the weight of stone.

Timeless beauty? Yes.