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Architects: Filipe Pina
- Area: 1722 ft²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:João Morgado
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Manufacturers: Aleluia Cerâmicas, Efapel, Ofa, Sanitana
Text description provided by the architects. Frei Pedro is a building of only about 40 square meters, which was composed in the past by 3 floors, which despite being in degraded shape, enjoy a very privileged location in the historic city centre of Guarda. The original building, from the end of the nineteenth century, is characteristic of a traditional urban con- struction, with its south front side facing a public space, and its north side opening to a tiny dark damp backyard shared with other buildings.
Due to regulatory compliance, the original front sides were preserved intact, focusing the intervention on the roof enlargement, applying traditional black slate. The use of light colours within the building contributed to maximise the visual impact of the limited interior space. The humble finishing’s rewrites the past social living of the building.
With this intervention, we aimed to raise the complexity and interest of an otherwise limited simple project. The regular geometry of the existing building and its characteristic architecture are two perfect, elegant curves, which follow the main staircase, enhancing its size despite keeping it accessible to the different living spaces. These are composed of a commercial area on the ground floor, a studio on the first floor facing south to the public garden, and a small duplex on the upper floors.
From the preservation and rehabilitation of the old building emerges the modern enlargement, which man- ages to give a fresh harmonised front to the whole building, adding to its new living spaces adapted to current housing requirements.
