Experimental

At the top of a 1980s building in Porto, the renovation of this apartment sought to open up the spaces and dissolve the rigid boundaries between rooms.

The former compartmentalization was undone in favor of a fluid layout, where the living room opens fully between two façades: on one side, a balcony overlooking the street; on the other, a recessed garden extending into the interior of the city block. This dual orientation ensures visual crossovers, cross-ventilation, and a rare intensity of natural light.

At the center, a floating kitchen — a light, almost suspended volume — organizes the space without enclosing it. Traces of time were preserved in fragments: remnants of demolished walls, silhouettes of old tiles, and unfinished textures that tell the story of the place.

The wooden flooring, installed according to the oblique angle of the building’s own structure, subtly guides the gaze and reinforces spatial continuity. The new façade, generously open, amplifies the natural light and extends the interior into the exterior, making light the main element of the design.

This intervention does not seek to erase the past, but to reinscribe it with new ways of living — open, lighter, more connected to the city and its time.