The project located at Escadinhas das Portas do Mar, near the Lisbon cathedral, in one of the oldest neighborhood of city,  Alfama  – with  it's urban network and it's narrow streets, alleys and stairs for a different pcity points, was one of the most challenging work for Atelier 106.

The apartment with about 60 m2 of area, despite its housing license, did not have the living conditions required by current living standards, and originally functioned as an office / warehouse. The biggest problem was the natural light and ventilation entrances, since there were only windows in two spaces, four located on the main facade and a much smaller one open to the stairs. The rest of the apartment was buried.

In this sense, the main concern was the organization of the space, taking the greatest advantage of existing windows to promote lighting and natural ventilation, through the location of the areas and the expansion of the space, cancelling the corridors and doors, in order to generate a crossing light and ventilation. On the other hand, the possible demolitions were minimal – only the walls of the sanitary installation that had been built later and the masonry walls that filled certain passages could be removed – the remaining original walls were structural and very thick.

Thus, the first decision was to locate the room and the bedroom facing the main facade where a greater luminosity was achieved and, therefore, greater comfort for areas with permanence nature. Where the third window existed, the kitchen was located. The transition space between living room, bedroom and kitchen began to function as an office with a piece of carpentry that makes the kitchen's desk, bookcase and dining table. The rest of the space, fully buried, houses the closet, storage and sanitary installation, and the passages were all opened in order to create flow spaces and marked their thick walls with light yellow paint. Sharing the closet of the remaining spaces, there is a curtain embedded in the false ceiling.  In the kitchen, where it was possible to create enough storage, we took advantage of the original design, through the existing niches.

The materials used were the wood on the floor – bedroom and living room – and the cement in the remaining wetter areas, areas whose walls and ceilings were coated with plasterboard and insulation.