Casa Tropical is a three-bedroom holiday house in Mundaú, Ceará, Brazil, designed by Portugal’s Camarim Architects and completed around 2008. It uses a wide timber gallery to cool itself, so it needs no air-conditioning.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Mundaú, Ceará, Brazil |
| Architect | Camarim Architects (Portugal) |
| Completed | 2008 (per an architecture database) |
| Size | About 490 square meters, three floors |
| Bedrooms | Three |
Casa Tropical: tropical luxury in Brazil
Today we visit Brazil to see a tropical beach house designed by Camarim Architects, Casa Tropical. The residence is in the fishermen’s village of Mundaú in the state of Ceará, where vegetation and human life coexist in a natural balance.
The architects
Camarim Architects is a Portugal-based firm established in 2007 by Vasco Matias Correia and Patrícia Sous. Their goal: To create spatial solutions that make life easier and rewarding. The firm designed Casa Tropical around luxury, flexibility and timelessness. To see more of their work, visit the official website.
The brief
The owner wanted a holiday house with 3 bedrooms and a sense of constant contact with the surrounding nature.
” We thought of systems in which earth, Sun and shadow, coconut trees and other trees, dunes and sea, would complement the design of the house, suggesting a condensed and sensual experience of close and faraway nature. ”
The energy and service strategy of this house is unprecedented in the region.
The house can draw energy from the intense sun and wind of the site.
” Passive cooling is achieved by means of the gallery: it shelters the interior spaces from the tropical sun, leaving them permeable to the mountain breeze. The wooden skin that wraps the gallery filters glare, protects intimacy in the bedrooms and frames sights. ”
Three floors, three different views
The house has three floors with three different outlooks. The podium at street level overlooks the garden, and two volumes with different functions create a permanent open space. The rooms on the second floor are reached from the gallery, and privacy, an exotic breeze and views come with every room.
The living room sits in a timber house on top of the concrete house, like a house in the trees, with an open roof and 3.20 m glass panels. The architects have said they designed everything from structure to services and acted as the builders, completing the roughly 490 square meter construction in seven months with local masons and carpenters.
Keep reading
- More luxury homes: our full home category
FAQ
Where is Casa Tropical?
In Mundaú, a fishing village in the state of Ceará in northeast Brazil.
Who designed Casa Tropical?
Camarim Architects, a Portuguese firm founded in 2007 by Vasco Matias Correia and Patrícia Sous.
How does Casa Tropical stay cool?
A wide gallery shades the interior from the tropical sun and lets the breeze through, and the wooden skin and suspended roof filter the glare. No air-conditioning is needed according to the architects’ description.
How big is Casa Tropical?
Its construction is about 490 square meters over three floors, with three bedrooms.
When was Casa Tropical completed?
In 2008, as listed by an architecture database. Our earlier article gave no date.
Last updated: October 2026.
