From the fleeting to the permanent, and from São Paulo to the world, MNMA Studio’s approach is rooted in drawing as narrative, and is centred on the subtlety of everyday life and on architecture as a catalyst for experiences. This year, Lisbon will be home to one of its projects, a café/grocery store in Madragoa. 

In Grândola, surrounded by the Alentejo province yet emerging from the horizontal landscape, Casa Azul, which embraces an earthy colour, is all about poetry, art and mindfulness. The architectural project is by Ricardo Bak Gordon. 

Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran became friends long before they started sharing their studio where, since 2013, they have continued to express their meticulous and integrated vision, using a large team of collaborators to recreate the timeless beauty of Californian modernist houses. Through discipline and a good dose of optimism, the American pair restore the original to contemporary spaces, revealing how architecture can, ultimately, transcend the inexorable power of its locations.

When architecture responds in an exemplary way to an idea as poetic as that of a startled child pulling up and covering themselves with their bedsheet. This “hill over the valley” embodies that feeling of protection and cosiness. 

A space nestling in the midst of nature, where the owner is committed to harvesting the fruit planted by previous generations. 

Surrounded as if by an unending natural canvas, dotted with olive groves, vineyards and oak and chestnut woods, it is in the Umbria region, bordering Tuscany, that the Hotel Castello di Reschio rises majestically. 

Through an accumulation of voids, stories multiply and a space is created “for meditation and balance”, bringing alchemy to modern life. 

What started out as a "challenge between friends, aiming to bring together different origins, essences and prisms under the umbrella of a common educational background (architecture)", led to the creation of Atelier Data. Now, 15 years later, Marta Frazão, Filipe Rodrigues and Inês Vicente believe that the success of this collective, consisting of a vast team of partners and collaborators, is based on the"contradictions, divergences and diversity in thinking" that the trio applies to solving architectural problems.

Concealed from prying eyes, but open to those who live in it, this house contains an essential element: the swimming pool. This being the beginning, middle and end of the whole project. 

The historical character of this home required the conservation of some of its aspects, while another – entirely new – part of the home, affirms a distinctive and modern personality. 

Ricardo Bak Gordon sees the architect as the maestro of an orchestra who, amid moments of certainty and doubt, constantly forges ahead to give the best of himself through this discipline. 

Wine, land and art are the three reasons we headed for the acclaimed Sonoma County wine region in California.