We have remodeled and refurbished an old house in the city center of Porto. The two-storey house will be used by a mother and her daughter; mother will live downstairs and the daughter will be upstairs.

Most original elements downstairs that characterize this old house such as the old doors, sky-lighting and designs in the ceilings have been carefully restored and maintained. Except a partition wall between the living room and the kitchen, all other walls have been preserved. Removal of this particular wall allows fluidity of communication between the two previous rooms that did not exist before. Moreover, an island kitchen has been installed for integration of the previously disjoint spaces.

For upstairs, which is an attic floor, we have restored several structural elements including a granite wall, a wooden beam of the roof, and cylindrical sky-lighting to illuminate the stairway. The floor has been divided into two main areas comprising of the living room and the bedroom; a large sliding door connects the two divided spaces. Moreover, we also created cozy support spaces for a small storage as well as a bathroom and a dressing room.

This newly renovated house has most characteristics and styling of an old house but the design now incorporates contemporary ideas regarding synergistic existence of the old and the new elements.