This studio was conceived as a spatial essay exploring encounters, transitions, and retreat at an intimate scale. The artist couple envisioned the atelier as both a container for their distinct creative practices and a shared space for social exchange. On a narrow 7 x 28-meter plot, the project proposes a structural composition that interweaves concrete, steel, and structural masonry to form two autonomous volumes. These are enclosed by concrete block walls and expansive glazed panels, all organized around a central garden courtyard.
The program responds to the necessity of defining two distinct artistic environments: one dedicated to painting, where light and openness are paramount; the other oriented toward image manipulation and sculptural work, requiring controlled lighting and infrastructure for fabrication and handling.
Situated on the upper level, the two volumes are deliberately separated to allow isolation and introspection, yet their distance is softened through visual connections. A long metallic walkway threads between them, culminating in a veranda and directly linking the artists’ studios.
The ground floor privileges continuity and permeability. Between the communal spaces (kitchen and dining area), the garden courtyard, and support rooms (workshop and graphic production), activities unfold and overlap—an embodiment of the atelier’s collaborative ethos, where artists, gardeners, collaborators, cooks, assemblers, collectors, and curators gather around the same table for dialogue and meals.
The furniture reinforces this sense of unity through the use of elemental materials. Worktables repurpose peroba-rosa beams salvaged from the roof of the demolished pre-existing house. In the dining and meeting tables, the same beams rest upon a light steel frame, creating a striking contrast between the weight of the timber and the delicacy of the structure—an original and ingenious design gesture.
This version emphasizes architectural vocabulary (composition, permeability, autonomy, continuity, ethos) and highlights design intent, materiality, and spatial experience.
