Vale Formoso
Lisbon, Portugal
2018–2014
The building is located in Lisbon’s up and coming Beato quarter, a historical district mostly built in 17th– and 18th-century that became successively constricted by both the train lines and the port authority and until very recently remained a modest blue-collar neighborhood. In the past decade it began a gentryfication process, first with artists’ studios and art galleries, and more recently with IT-startup companies, condominiums, gyms, bars and lifestyle restaurants.
This 3-storey 1920s building was erected in a “pre-concrete” period that saw most of Lisbon’s contractors coming from the city of Tomar to became known as the “gaioleiros” (or cage-makers) on account of their use of a structural system based on a derivative model of the Pombaline wood-frame structure, in many ways similar to the American ballon frame. The owner of the building is an artist that wanted to have a studio on the ground-floor and is home in the attic, with the floors in between dedicated to small 2-bedroom units for rent. Despite its delapidated condition, it was possible to restore and renovate most of the historical “tabique” light wall system, with structural reinforcements in steel and concrete introduced in specific points. The “soft” renovation principle was to minimize the intervention and avoid overtely constrasting elements. The facades were restored to their original composition and finishings with new window frames, but with similar partitioning. The formerly unexistent Southwest facade that arised on the outcome of the opening of a new road, saw the introducion of a system of overhanging steel balconies, evocative of Lisbon’s 19th-century steel-framed backyard facades, in addition to a loading door to the artits’s studio. The roof, which was rebuilt entirely anew, was devised in LSF metal studs finished in zinc sheeting. The space allowed to create an attic with a small veranda overlooking the river.





Location: Rua Vale Formoso de Cima 1 (Lisbon), Portugal
Client: Private
Scope of Services: Architecture
Project Brief: Renovation of historical building into 9 apartments and artist’s studio
Gross Built Area: 833 sq. m
Project Status: 2015 (concept design) – 2018 (built)