Renovation

Thai’s apartment was a renovation of an old apartment in one of São Paulo’s biggest avenues, 9 de Julho, to house a young single man who just moved back into the city and loves cooking and having people over. The building was built around the 1950s and has a privilegie view to Paulista, one of the most important avenue of the state, which had an important part in the design concept alongside the redistribution of the rooms, prioritizing the social areas and the renovation for a cleaner and more contemporary approach in the design. With the expansion of the living room by joining the extra bedroom and kitchen, the social area was completely renovated making a lot more space for Thai to host all the people he’d like and still be able to switch the layout around to better suit his needs in a fluid manner.

This re-creation of a family home, tailored to its occupant’s lifestyles, was realised through careful consideration of layout and context. Gresham Street House is an example of vernacular architecture, the architect and Director of Jackson Teece, Daniel Hudson lived there for 6 years before taking on the redesign. Ultimately, he has taken an existing “Queenslander” and shaped the design to create a home that acts as the epitome of shelter in a harsh climate.

Sá da Bandeira’s building was our first project in the Porto downtown context, having been in standby for several years, its construction began five years after the project was started. This waiting period proved to be fundamental in the outcome of the project since it contributed to a reflection on how to project in a preexistence. The initial project affirmed in a very radical way the relationship between the existent and the new, intention that lost force as the construction moved on, ending in a much more sensible and discrete exercise that almost annuls the presence of the architect in the final result.