Taipa Houses: Five Homes by the Water

Taipa Houses are a row of five green residences on Avenida da Praia, between the old village and the water. Their name recalls Longhuan, an older name for Taipa, while their Portuguese-style façades sit in a setting also formed by Our Lady of Carmel Church and the municipal garden. The houses are small in scale; together they make a residential ensemble rather than a single grand monument.

They were completed in 1921 and served as homes for senior public officials and Macanese families. Those two uses belong together in the history of the group: the buildings were official residences, but they were also part of the domestic landscape of Taipa’s Macanese community. The five green façades remain the most recognisable element of the waterfront setting.

In 1992, the five buildings were recognised as a complex of architectural value. After a thorough restoration, the government adapted them as a museum site. The Taipa Houses-Museum opened to the public at the end of 1999, giving the former homes a new use without erasing their domestic scale or separating them from the church, garden and shore around them.

A museum distributed among five houses works differently from one contained in a purpose-built hall. Visitors pass between separate buildings and enter rooms that retain the proportions of residences. The change in use is visible in the transition from private homes to public rooms, while the arrangement of the group still preserves the character that earned it recognition as an architectural ensemble.

In September 2016, the five buildings were reorganised from west to east as the Macanese Living Museum, Exhibitions Gallery, Creative Casa, Nostalgic House and House for Receptions. The Living Museum uses household furnishings, photographs and historical material to recreate scenes from Macanese life in earlier Macau. Creative Casa brings a bookshop onto the ground floor and an exhibition space upstairs, where local and visiting artists’ work can be shown.

The House for Receptions has been used for Casa Maquista, a cultural restaurant promoting Macanese cuisine and the culinary skills recognised as intangible cultural heritage. The group also hosts exhibitions, outdoor performances and festivals. Its present life therefore moves between domestic history and public cultural activity: one house reconstructs home life, another supports books and art, and another gives Macanese food a public setting.