Our clients, an artist who works with ceramics and mosaics and a retired musician who once toured with B.B. King, chose to build their new home in Alto da Ajuda, a working-class neighborhood built in the 1930’s.
Despite its proximity to the center of Lisbon, the area retains a certain village atmosphere, with small plots of two-story houses with gardens oriented towards the river.
Although local planning restrictions dictated the exterior form and ap-pearance of the house, this was our second attempt to create overlapping spatial experiences within a regular envelope, giving the dwellers a se-quence of unexpected spaces.
The basement accommodates the artist’s studio, a raw space with a high-ceiling and 10m-long roof light, which provides constant light throughout the day. Adjoining it is a hidden space, a music room with a window into the swimming pool.
The ground floor is a perfect square, 10x10m, a generous space with large windows opening in three directions. All social areas are seamlessly orga-nized in this space, providing a lively and generous atmosphere. The floor is slightly sunken into the ground, creating an unusual scale in the interi-or and transforming the window sills into benches.
Three bedrooms are arranged in a traditional layout on the first floor. On the floor above, beneath the pitched roof, is a loft with magnificent views of the river and sea.
The palette of materials selected - sanded aluminum floors, a variety of woods, lacquers, concrete and a range of pigmented colored stuccos spe-cially produced for the project - were intended to heighten the differences between each floor.
Construction started after Portugal’s application for a bailout from the IMF and like other contemporaneous projects, any superficial elements were removed, leaving a stark, elemental architecture.
Bought in the early days of construction, the swimming pool’s marble serves as the memory of other possibilities, transforming the music-room into a magical place.
