Project: Morro Apartment
Architects: Hinterland Architecture Studio
Project Team: Filipa Figueira and Tiago Vieira
Location: Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
Area: 60sqm
Year: 2019
Photo credits: Ivo Tavares Studio
Text by Hinterland Architecture Studio
The small Morro apartment, with only 60sqm is part of a 60’s affordable rent building. The original house is divided into minimum spaces, articulated by the entrance hall and a small corridor. The aim of the project was to maximize the living space of the house, stripping the space to the bare minimum and reorganizing the plan.
During the first demolitions it was clear that there would be constrains with the old building infrastructures and it would be impossible to change the kitchen and bathroom location. With budget constraints the strategy was to demolish the unnecessary partition walls, change the old damaged windows and introduce thermal and sound insulation to the exterior walls.
The new plan keeps the original bedrooms and bathroom location while the entrance hall, kitchen, living room and sunroom are merged to a single space, providing sunlight to the whole apartment.
Since the first site visit we knew the existing floor would be an important visual element, it was recovered and completed while the walls and ceiling were painted in full white. The woodwork is designed as new contemporary elements, built in coloured wood fibre panels and applied as ready-made objects in the existing space.
