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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. “Apartment in Estrela” in Lisbon, Portugal by AURORA arquitectosSeptember 11th, 2016 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: AURORA arquitectos It is not necessary to create a world, but the possibility of a world. Jean-Luc Godard in Reflexivity in Film and Architecture, 1985. Reflectivity as concept, as much in its use in film or literature as in its appropriation by architecture, refers to that moment when the work suddenly draws focus onto itself as a construct, and as a fictional reality.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos
 Image Courtesy © do mal o menos Likewise, the intervention done in the Apartment in Estrela reveals its own renovation logic, making the time-based and formal ruptures explicit, nevertheless acknowledging the reconciliation possibilities between the distinct realities which this action eventually spawns.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos Acknowledging the questions raised by the nature of renovation itself becomes even more relevant when we take into account that the apartment not only had a good building quality already, but also was in good conditions and ready to be inhabited. The intervention therefore had more to do with a redefinition of its programme, and ultimately the increase of appropriation possibilities of space by the client.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos The project thus comprises two different approaches: the first and more direct one deals with recovering the original design elements and language in order to expand its constructive qualities. The wooden floors, kitchen tiles, door trims, and wall and ceiling decorations were left unchanged. The south side of the apartment, comprising the kitchen, service areas and a bedroom, was also left with its original configuration.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos The way we worked on the kitchen’s tiled surfaces shows the desire to highlight the differences between the original traits and the intervention. Besides from allowing a sense of continuity in the renovation process, it also provides contrast with the juxtaposed new elements.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos This juxtaposition is made more evident on the north side of the apartment, where we inverted the totality of the programme. The private areas, initially comprising three bedrooms, gave place to a single living room. The social area, comprising the former living-room and a study, became two bedrooms and a walk-in closet. This reconfiguration deals with how to unite what had so far been separate, and divide what had so far been whole.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos In the living room, the reference to the demolished walls stands, through its framed negative, as a time-based coordinate, is now defined by a rim of wood and brass. There is also a hint of wall-crossing, left by mere traces of doors, their remaining trims and headers. In its turn, the wall now dividing the bedrooms is a rather affirmative feature, drawing attention back to itself as a separation apparatus, and taking spatial reading back to the original living room.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos What could be easily understood as an act of uniting and separating becomes one of the project’s main themes – reversibility. The space issue becomes a time-related concern. Now we have come to accept that renovation is part of an ongoing process of change and constant revising of its own validity.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos It is, then, from the constant dialogue between the previous elements and the new ones, that the creation of unexpected possibilities emerges. A kind of palimpsest as a way of rethinking and challenging the pre-established functions and relationships, from dwellers to architecture itself.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos About Aurora Arquitectos Aurora Arquitectos studio was founded in the year 2010 by Sofia Couto and Sérgio Antunes and is the natural consequence of the work they have been carrying out together, as well as the experience and legacy of studio Kaputt!. The subject of their work has been buildings in their most varied scales, from small dwellings to large cultural infrastructures, as well as urban master plans. Both members are trained architects, but based on the discipline’s method they have carried out projects in various areas on architecture’s outer edges.  Image Courtesy © AURORA arquitectos  Image Courtesy © AURORA arquitectos
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