Promontorio HQ

The offices are located in a warehouse located in Marvila, a neighbourhood of Lisbon’s West riverfront that gained a new centrality on the outcome of the World Exhibition of 1998. Over the past decade, it entered a gentrification process wherein traditional light-industrial facilities such as carpentries, logistics and storages, gradually gave way to art galleries, artist studios, designer showrooms and architecture offices.

The building, a former wine cellar, stands in a row of pitched roof warehouses that form a private courtyard. Tiled in terracotta, with double-height ceiling and wood trusses spanning 12 metres held by thick masonry walls, the warehouse was renovated into an architecture studio. A steel structure with solid Pitch Pine boarding was introduced in order to generate a mezzanine floor.

With built-in twin-desk workstations in melamine finishing and light grey cement floors, the 100 sq. m lobby functioned as a art gallery that could be temporarily isolated from the studio by a large pivoting door.