Commerzn . photos: © emontenegro / architectural photography
The project consists on the strategic remodeling of a house located in the central and historic area of Cascais. The building appears on a corner, with the reading of the roof and the different textures of the facade very relevant. At first glance, the plot area, namely the exterior, seems smaller than later revealed.
Space as an essential feature of contemporaneity.
The access is made by a comfortable staircase that allows a last glimpse of the crossing to an upper level. The lobby area immediately reveals a sculptural steel and wood staircase to the lower floor. On the right side, a continuous panel in birch wood, which contains technical areas, storage cabinets, and access doors to the social sanitary installation and main suite. At the end of the corridor, we find the noble social area with four large windows that frame the roofs and green elements of the neighborhood. They look like artistic canvas exposed in a museum.
Upon entering this space, a sculptural and angular piece appears on the left side, which assumes itself as a primordial element. the area for tasting and preparing meals is an island of great proportions, culminating in a technical storage area for a large American refrigerator and other equipment. The mixture of scales and materiality makes the object intriguing.
On the right side, a door denounces an access to the first of two contemplative terraces of the south / west light. An area that cannot be anticipated from the outside, which overlooks a private garden surrounded by large-scale species.
When descending to the lower floor, wood continues to be the aggregating element, which in a continuous act associates in itself all the access doors to the different suites and technical spaces. There are intermediate living areas that can be the target of numerous uses, always maintaining a contextual relationship with the outside through the existing windows, now punctuated by black frames.
The materiality was thought out in detail, from the noble wood of the floor or walls, passing through the revelation of the existing concrete structure, seen as a sculptural part of each space, or in the soft touch of the selected finishes, whether mosaics or light switches.
It is a project where the interior is assumed as an essential character. Where surgical changes give new life to spaces. Where natural light is enhanced by the comfort of the materials used. This game of concepts and strategies inevitably values the “skin” that covers this way of living, also enhancing the value of outer space.
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