Hasta La Ideas

Trios of windows and a new lightwell help to bring daylight through the clean white interiors of this renovated townhouse in Porto by local studio Pablo Pita Architects (photos by José Campos + slideshow).

Pablo Rebelo and Pedro Pita of Pablo Pita Architects added an extra storey to the nineteenth-century residence, known as Casa da Maternidade, to create enough room to house a family.

The architects extended the original staircase, but rather than following its existing back-and-forth arrangement, they wrapped the extra stairs along the edges of two walls to open up a double-height space in between.

A skylight was then added overhead to transform the space into a generous lightwell.

“The lack of an expressive skylight in the original structure defines the approach,” said the architects.

“A new scale is set in the stair core, overlapping this new vertical walkthrough that runs along the existing house, achieving new see-throughs and different spatial relations between all the floors,” they added.

The newly added second floor accommodates a master bedroom and a study, both of which open out to rooftop balconies. There’s also an en suite bathroom encased in glass.

Two smaller bedrooms and a bathroom lined with turquoise mosaic tiles occupy the floor below, while an open-plan living and dining room spans the ground floor and leads out to a terrace and garden.

Photography is by José Campos.

Here’s a project description from Pablo Pita Architects:

Maternidade

Maternidade House is a single-family dwelling set in a 19th century refurbished house. An example directly restricted to an existing context where the dwelling return to its basis. Adapted to the contemporary needs and standards, the intervention respects its inner scale and typologic scheme.

Conceptually it reinterprets the nuclear core of this type of model, acknowledging the importance of light. The lack of an expressive skylight in the original structure defines the new approach.

A new scale is set in the stair core, overlapping this new vertical walkthrough that runs along the existing house, achieving new see-throughs and different spatial relations between all the floors.

The building is a typical late 19th century Porto house set in the city downtown. It is located in one of biggest city blocks, defined by large gardens in its interior, a bourgeois manor and an early last century maternity. The house itself was a two-storey middle-class example, with little ornamentation and highly modified through time.

The intervention aims to adapt this typical Porto dwelling typology to the daily contemporary routines. This is set from a depuration exercise, developing mainly the stair core, in order to achieve a unifying element that could relate all these different spaces.

The stairs and its light were a recurrent theme in such a narrow and long type of housing. The rooms respect its original scale, and a third floor is added considering the block outline.

The ground floor is the social level, gathering parking, kitchen and living-room, and relating it to the garden located in the interior of the block. In the highest level a guest floor is set with a wide perspective of its surroundings.

Project name: Casa da Maternidade
Architecture: Pablo Rebelo, Pedro Pita
Consultants: ALFAengenharia, PROQUALITYengenharia, Ricardo Ferreira da Silva
Constructor: F. Moreira da Silva & Filhos, Lda
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 2013

The post Casa da Maternidade by Pablo Pita Architects
is a renovated Porto townhouse appeared first on Dezeen.

Ribbed timber framework folds around the walls and ceiling of this bar in Porto by Portuguese studio AVA Architects (photos by José Campos).

The three floors of La Bohème include a first-floor mezzanine and a basement.

The walls between the wooden ribs are painted black, while all furniture is made from wood and black fabric.

We also recently published a lime green school by AVA architects – take a look here.

Here’s a longer project description from the architects:

Bar “La Bohème entre amis”, Oporto – Portugal
The Bar “La Bohème” (entre amis) is located in the “Galeria de Paris” street, amidst the downtown area of Porto.

The redesign sought to implement and structuralize the space, creating its own identity.

The solution was formalized through the texture and the colour of the wood, which defines the space and provides depth to the structure’s design.

This structure, which was placed along the corridors and namely at the walls and ceiling, allows to subvert the whole appearance of the space, appealing to its visitors sense of discovery.

The bar spans three levels: the main floor, basement and a mezzanine.

The latter establishes a visual relationship with the main floor.

The bar counter is located at the main floor’s bigger span, next to the entrance door and public access.

The previously adopted functional solution was maintained, although we opted to change the (only) existing counter’s location in order to give it a larger dimension, functionality and space for its customers.

The involving wooden structure was maintained on the lower level (basement) as to create uniformity with the main floor, and a large wine showcase was added.

The building’s facade is clad in granite ashlar.

We assumed that the previous window frames were made of solid wood, as to the resemblance of some existing adjacent buildings.

Changes made to the facade were solely at the level of framework and entrance span, combining an “Afizélia” wood (natural colour) with colourless laminated glass.

The proposed functional solution seemed more appropriate for the establishment’s new areas of operation and organization.

The composition and design of the elements in the framework were formulated taking into account the interior design of the space, while introducing rhythm by drawing vertical uprights.

This also ensured some security, preventing the installation of security systems previously installed.

A yellow wall of storage divides this Portuguese apartment by architects Pedro Varela & Renata Pinho (photographs by José Campos).

The renovation involved replacing the floor, adding storage and remodelling the kitchen, laundry room and bathroom.

The enormous yellow unit includes a pull-out stool with a smiling face for the client’s future child.

See all our stories about projects in Portugal here.

The information below is from photographer Jose Campos:

The redesign of this apartment had to deal with specific issues: replace the existing floor, redesign the kitchen while keeping the laundry space, and create lots of storage room.

The bathrooms and master bedroom intervention is a welcome bonus to what was essential.

Walls were remade out of carpentry work and house different solutions, from storage, to seating, partitioning and doors.

Playful solutions such as assymetric round holes substituing knobs, and a smiley face substituting a handle, are carved in a yellow closet which is the project’s inner core.

The kitchen is like a big flipping machine, with a replaceable counter, convertible laundry room and hidden storage in a clean layout.

A unified flooring and the furnishing/replacement of walls with closets gives the feeling of a bigger, somewhat openspace.

The bathrooms have two different geometric themes: one round, the other triangular; while the master bedroom uses wood to complement IKEA furniture.

See also:

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Rounded Loft by A1Architects	Apartment  by pauzarq	Paris apartment by MAAJ Architectes

Photographer José Campos has sent us these photographs of the recently completed law courts in Gouveia, Portugal, by architects Barbosa & Guimarães.

Located between two parks, The Gouveia Law Courts are set upon four chunky pillars.

The courts are accessed by a wide central staircase that brings visitors from the plaza into the heart of the building.

This stairwell is open to the sky and framed by the faceted concrete walls of the surrounding building.

The registrars’ offices are located in a courtyard below this staircase.

Internally, the courtroom is naturally lit through a series of skylights and offices overlook the park to the north.

More stories about projects in Portugal on Dezeen »

More photography stories on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from the architects:

Palácio de Justiça de Gouveia 2002 – 2011

Gouveia, door for entry to the Serra da Estrela, is going to be served by new Law Courts. The land set aside for construction is located between the public gardens, at the end of the Rampa do Monte do Calvário, replacing an existing building. The project takes advantage of the demolition of the existing building, which occupied the whole of the plot, to design a new Plaza, with a scale and dignity to receive the Law Courts.

In dialogue with the granite walls that define its surroundings, the Plaza takes on the form of a bottling of stone, upon which the Law Courts rest.

The building, set on four pillars, ensures transparency and connection between the two gardens that delimit it to the north and the south.

The dignity and symbolism that a building like the Law Courts should always have is achieved at the cost of the monolithic and singular character that the volume of white concrete acquires, above all in the expression of its compact elevations, with empty spaces deeply excavated, as if suspended over the Plaza.

A staircase of generous proportions opening onto a patio honours access to the Court floor.

The lobby/foyer crosses longitudinally the entirety of the building, communicating directly with the garden to the north, establishing a relationship of closeness with the tops of the existing trees through a horizontal empty space.

In the volume, the courtroom stands out, with a set of vertical skylights that subtly light the whole space.

The registrars services, which operate independently, are installed in the filled part of the building, open to an interior patio which communicates directly with the north garden.

The project foresees a public car park, hidden under the plaza, with access from the adjacent streets.

Ficha Técnica

Local: Gouveia
Dono da obra: Instituto de gestão financeira e infraestruturas da justiça

Concurso: 2002
Projecto: 2002 – 2004
Obra: 2008 – 2011

Arquitectura: Barbosa & Guimarães, José António Barbosa, Pedro Lopes Guimarães
Colaboradores: Miguel Pimenta, Cristina Chicau, Henrique Dias, José Marques, Luís Monteiro, Paula Fonseca, Susana Machado, Teresa Aroso, Raul Andrade, Pablo Rebelo

Estabilidade e estruturas: Alberto Teixeira
Empresa construtora: José Coutinho s.a.
Instalações hidráulicas: Luis Veloso
Instalações eléctricas: Rga. Paulo Oliveira
Instalações de rede de gás: Rga . Arnaldo Monteiro
Director de obra: Rafael Luzio
Instalações de avac: Rga . Arnaldo Monteiro

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See also:

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Ciutat de la Justícia by David Chipperfield	Monitoring Center by Aires Mateus	Social Centre by Imago