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Architects: Aires Mateus, SIA arquitectura
- Area: 8611 ft²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:João Guimarães – JG Photography
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Manufacturers: BRUMA, CMAT, CR Cerâmicas, Carpintaria Mateus Lda., Jular, Sanindusa
Text description provided by the architects. A building links the higher and lower levels of the city. Through its interior we are carried from the riverside bank to Chiado hill.
Facing south the facade facade imposes itself revealing its pombalina scale, Facing north a small patio links us to the top of the hill. Both scales dictate the rule and materiality of the project.
The proportion, ceiling heights, succession of spaces and relationship with the southern light from the pombalino building are restored. The spatial and material values are elected as intentions of the project. All strange elements of the original building are removed while spatial quality and interior light are enhanced. A grand staircase climbs the hillside retaining its dominant proportion and original design. Secular materials are applied: wood to doors, frames and floors and lioz limestone to terraces and wet areas.
On the lower floor the pombalina metric that consolidated the entire front of Rua do Arsenal is reestablished. The missing openings are punctured through the limestone.
In the northern patio the cloister is reinvented and lightened with white reflective surfaces. The construction construction is new and its materiality reveals the cleavage of time. There is a new atmosphere and a new life, interior and exterior have a contemporary domestic and residential scale.
