In Celtic Portuguese folklore, the ‘Enchanted Moura’ are described as magical genies who guard watery thresholds and awaken from their slumber in midsummer to guide humans through moments of transition. Physically, this transition might involve passing through a doorway, window or natural edge (the boundary between earth and water). Spiritually, this transition might be from the unconscious to the conscious state, or from the familiar to the unknown.

These dwellings house the ‘Enchanted Moura’, and invite you to enjoy the threshold between land and water & the process of waiting and becoming; bathing, soaking, cooling aided by porous clay, mud and water.

Waking Life and Land Regeneration Project commissioned two lakeside structures for bathing and resting and through a collaborative design and build we hoped to create a pair of spaces which bring together elements of local ecology, geology and folklore.