Apartment Refurbishment in Cais do Sodré
The building has a significant depth. The 3 inner courtyards are a consequence of the need of light and ventilation and the result are a number of spaces with a faint strained light coming from different directions.
The apartment is located on the edge of the old heart of the city – Baixa, in front of the São Paulo Square. Baixa was built under the huge urban intervention in the city after the earthquake of 1755.
All the buildings from that time have one important characteristic: a flexible wooden structure implanted on the walls, floors and roofs and later that comes out as a solution to prevent other tragedies as the one Lisbon had just suffered. Nowadays this element is one patrimonial element to be preserved in every work on this neighbourhood or on any other old building of the city that uses the same system.
In addition to the infrastructural question, the recovery mainly consists of the interior finishes, stucco walls, painting of the wooden structure of the building left in sight and painting of ceilings in plasterboard that are intended to be maintained (the original above is in very poor condition and quite deformed).
The proposed color palette is reduced in two colours, based on the idea of identifying the preexistence with black and the new with white. Thus, following this premise, the white is revealed on the stucco and plasterboard walls and ceilings and the black appears on the "cage" structure as well as in the old ceiling which is homogenized with the painting.
