The project involves the full rehabilitation and extension of a 1970 single-family house in Benfica, which had fallen into a state of ruin. The intervention transforms the obsolete volume into a contemporary two-storey T2 dwelling (with mezzanine), focusing on redefining spatiality and enhancing natural light.

Through selective demolition and the creation of new circulations, the ground floor becomes a generous and continuous social space (living room/kitchen), cutting through the footprint of the house and ensuring transversal lighting from the courtyard to the entrance hall. The entrance hall, characterised by its curved wall, together with the layout that closes towards the street and opens onto the interior patio, constitutes a key conceptual gesture, providing privacy and fluidity to the new domestic experience. The façade height of 4.70 m is maintained in accordance with the modal value of the block.

The project’s philosophy—rooted in the use of voids and the reflective capacity of white—uses design to integrate contemporary standards of habitability. The mezzanine concentrates the private areas (bedrooms/en-suites), which receive direct natural light, complemented by skylights in the sanitary facilities. Outside, the courtyard is reinterpreted as an intimate patio, where the planting of an olive tree in a circular void reinforces the visual and spatial connection with the interior and with the curved geometry of the hall.

In terms of materials, the project highlights the use of solid pine wood flooring and Estremoz marble in wet areas, adding a sense of nobility, simplicity and timelessness to the final result.

This intervention stands as a paradigm of urban rehabilitation, returning a once-abandoned property

Team

Bruno Câmara, Íris Pedro, João Câmara, Miguel Vieira da Silva, Carolina Cruz, Marianna Nascimento, Vicente Évora