The apartment, previously denominated as “the building’s caretaker apartment”, sits on top of six storey residential building, with two separate entrances.
Connected to the building’s two separate stair core, the apartment has two diametrically opposed entrances, joined by a long corridor and presents a highly comparted and disconnected spatial distribution.
The apartment is located on the first floor of a building that was constructed in the second half of the 19th century on an area of landfill established along the Lisbon waterfront in the wake of the 1755 earthquake.
Letting natural light enter in the space was the concept for the development of this space.
The space was originally segmented with several work areas and where natural light was none and very dark rooms. The basic idea for the creation was immediately liberat-ed from the whole area, transforming it into an open space.
Claus Porto is a portuguese scents brand whose 130 years history had to be summoned in the project of the first flagship store to open in Lisbon downtown. A heritage built not just by their impressive material assets, but also by their intangible patrimony, linked to the objects’ symbolic quality and value. Towards the visual impact that the Claus products have, the store design would have to be minimalist but very sensitive, so that it could enhance and complement the brand’s strong identity. It should be an inclusive, elegant and cosmopolitan place, but also a place with a strong sensory appeal.
This kind of intervention stands for a new approach and vision on the built heritage of big cities which, most of time, are left to abandonment and abrasion of time for different reasons, either these are historical, social or economic.
In this example we can highlight the Investor´s will and initiative, along with the knowledge of technicians, Architects, Engineers and builders to restore life and dignity to a building that was in a great state of degradation and which purpose has been mischaracterized over time. In a contemporary perspective and in it´s own context, we tried to enhance the experience of inhabiting the intrinsic features of the new and the old, in order to keep the most of the building´s character and expression also in the articulation of its interior space.
Article source: Souza Oliveira – Arquitectura e Urbanismo Lda.
Lisbon and its “new avenues” (built in the beginning of the past century) are always a challenge for an architect.
Lisbon’s Stone Block is located in the corner of two major streets and that position is somehow special in the relation that the building it-self creates with the “urban net”.
The idea/concept of the building is based in a “mutant facade”: a skin in stone, almost metamorphoses and movable.
Transformation of a 4 bedroom apartment into a 2 bedroom apartment, increasing this way its social areas .
The apartment was essentially developed along its length, structuring itself around a long corridor. However, thanks to two existing courtyards in the building it benefited from the entry of natural light in its inner part. The house was quite compartmentalized, and the rooms, with tiny areas, were mainly oriented to those courtyards. On the rear façade there used to be a very large and disqualified marquise devoted to storage and cleaning areas. It had only one complete bathroom.
Built with tabique (traditional wooden partitions), this building situated on the river bank of the Dafundo area, develops a privileged relationship with the river.
The future residence of a couple who are marine biologists, the intervention had as its main premise the perusal of this relation with the water, in a way to allow its visibility in as many as possible points of the house.
The apartment was too compartmentalized in the social areas.
There was only one common bathroom, since the other was conditioned to the maid’s room, only accessible from the kitchen.
The main idea was to bring together living-room, entrance hall and kitchen in an uninterrupted space, giving access to other compartments through a single indoor hall. The elimination of the maid’s room also enabled increasing the kitchen and the reorganization of the bathrooms.
The neighborhood of Caselas, Lisbon, was built in 1949 and designed by architect Antonio Couto Martins.
With a regular and orthogonal organization this neighborhood is characterized by the adaptation of its urban fabric to some pre-existing elements, such as the Church, which served as a reference to its main axes.
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