Alcântara Apartment is an interiors project that proposes a critical review over the social areas that cover about 40 m2 of an apartment in the city of Lisbon, meant to be the family home of a newly married couple.
Originally the entrance of the apartment was made directly into the living room, that, due to its small size, did not allow enough space to have a living and a dining area. The remaining rooms in the house were isolated from this area by a door, through which a corridor was accessed. From the corridor it was possible to reach the kitchen, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a suite. After analyzing the existing layout, the apartment presented some issues regarding proportion and functionality, in particular, the reduced area of the living room, the proportion of it compared to the kitchen and bedrooms’ areas, and the fact that the access to the kitchen is made through the same corridor that leads to the bedrooms.
Therefore, the proposal, focused on solving the described problems, is characterized by an operation of detail in the social area of the apartment. This operation presents two simple and clear intervention strategies: the opening of the kitchen to the living room area - closing the existing access through the corridor thus clearly separating the two functional dimensions of the house - and the clarification of the different environments of the social area based on layout design and integration of the functional objects that characterize them.
The first area, the entrance into the apartment, is now clearly delimited with the insertion of a bookcase, which was designed with the purpose of being incorporated into the space. This piece, besides working as boundary to the lower ceiling in the entrance, also enables a visual connection with the rest of the spaces and allows natural light into that first area. The second environment is the living area, highlighted by its direct relationship with the highest ceiling and in harmony with the existing window layout. The kitchen, now integrated with the living room, becomes a stand out piece that, in direct relationship with the social area, has a great impact on it. In proposing its relocation, it was fully integrated within the rest of the social area, not only in terms of distribution of equipment, but mainly with the choice of color and materials. The dining area is now inserted into the space in a functional way, and its placement is highlighted by the new ceiling lighting. Lastly, the proposal also included a change in the flooring of the entire social area, as well as the lacquering of all the wood pieces in the space in order to make it appear ampler.
The purpose of the project was to unite the entire social area of the apartment in order to qualify its habitability but defining environments with different purposes through the design of objects bring harmony between them.
