CAN BAU. A Viraje project in collaboration with Paloma Bau Studio

“I remember the laughter and the pranks. I remember the mornings at the pool, the afternoons of cycling and the nights of endless conversations. I remember full breakfasts, endless after-dinner meals and naps on the porch. I remember endless summers.”

Summer is a place where you feel free. A place where frantic noises are transformed into birdsong, waves crashing on the shore and children’s laughter. Where smells change into fresh air. A place to do and not to think. A place full of first times.

And it is precisely in this place where we find why the owners chose Moraira, a charming village on the Costa Blanca, for their summer residence.

Moraira is a small town with a fishing tradition and seven beaches. Historic buildings, fortified churches, castles and walls coexist with sandy and stony beaches, hiking trails and a wide range of gastronomy.

Can Bau stands here. A summer residence designed by Paloma Bau Studio and Viraje to house three families and nine members. A meeting place where you can live the moment, the here and now.

Its design lacks ornamentation, just purity, silence and emotion Simple but solid materials. Earthenware, concrete, stone and reed. White and sand tones, neutral furniture and natural textures that can be touched and felt.

The continuous pavement becomes a guiding thread and invites you to start your journey through a house without hierarchies where everything is shared.

Can Bau stands here. A summer residence designed by Paloma Bau Studio and Viraje to house three families and nine members. A meeting place where you can live the moment, the here and now.

The continuous pavement becomes a guiding thread and invites you to start your journey through a house without hierarchies where everything is shared.

The house is developed on a single level with two differentiated areas. The night area houses three double en suite bedrooms and a children’s room. The day area is an open space combining a living room, kitchen, porch and swimming pool, favouring flexibility and democratisation.

Nature and habitat have been part of the project since the first contact. The façade combines lime mortar cladding and natural stone. The exercise through the courtyard, the swimming pool and the porch connect indoors and outdoors. Metallic carpentry elements frame the exterior and its nature to give it greater prominence.

The house comprises just three materials that act as a backdrop: continuous paving, endless cladding, and stone. Inside, the vertical walls are covered with lime mortar. A white micro-cement is used for the kitchen furniture, washbasins and barbecue.

The technical challenges in the plot and the slope have been solved to make the housing appear part of the site’s origin. An origin that becomes a destination.

The result is delicate, unique and calm. A shelter that appeals to feelings of holism, warmth, calm and belonging. Because the real issue at Can Bau is not the how or the where but the with whom.