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Architects: Construir Habitar Pensar Arquitectos
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Photographs:Francisco Nogueira
Text description provided by the architects. A complete refurbishment of an apartment on the 2nd floor of a building built in the first half of the twentieth century, in Lapa in Lisbon. The original apartment is a very good example of a typical layout seen in many cases throughout Lisbon in this period: a central corridor, with no sunlight, accesses all the rooms.
The kitchen, located opposite to the main entrance, leads to an enclosed balcony often used as a laundry room, connected to a service area with direct access from the building ́s second staircase. The plans were redesigned, creating and adapting the existing space into a contemporary form of living.
The long dark corridor is intersected in the middle, dividing the apartment in two main areas, social, and private. The kitchen is now located in the centre, and the direct connection to the living room provides the corridor with natural sunlight and unites both facades.
The social areas can be closed independently by three sets of three door panels that pivot, creating different relationships and interactions depending on their position. Four bedrooms, one office and three bathrooms were designed on the other half of the apartment. Thus, the design accomplishes its main goal, transforming the apartment into a contemporary living space, where function meets light, clarifying space.
