East Lisbon Loft

The city of Lisbon has very few ‘loft’ buildings, – considering the basis of this residential typology in the reuse of the celebrated American multi-storey cast-iron warehouse, – simply because its incipient industry hardly ever justified vertical storage. However, in the East Port area of Lisbon, and for a brief period of time in the wake of the 1970s, a settlement of light industry linked to cargo and freight companies justified multi-storey warehousing given Lisbon’s already significant land costs. The building where this loft apartment is located is a massive 5-storey concrete structure, with cargo elevators and 5m-height floors, supported by rectangular mushroom columns.

Overlooking the Tagus River, the new occupants of the original 500 sq. m open plan space, are a large family that has chosen to make few compartments, other than the bedrooms-plus-toilet boxes and a gym.  The columns and capitals, together with the old electrical crane, which was left in the living-room/ open kitchen, contrasts with the domesticity introduced by the control of ceiling heights, mezzanines and narrow passages.

Lightweight walls were introduced to create the bedrooms’ partitions, whilst a circulation loop maintains the sense of freedom that yields from the original warehouse. Rough construction details and a very simple material palette were carefully chosen to match the post-industrial atmosphere.