The request, which consisted of designing a different and innovative living space and completely different from what could be imagined as a home, arose as a challenge.
To unify the concept of living, an irregular capsule was idealised that extends all over the flat and surrounds walls and ceiling, a wrinkled pladur skin, as if it were a crumpled sheet of paper, scattered throughout the space. The white floor, with triangular light gaps, which groove the floor and make it an integrated part of the whole, completes and reinforces the intervention.
The central idea was centred on the deconstruction of walls and ceilings, formalised in triangulations that would embrace all the corners and complements necessary for the functioning of the dwelling. The ceiling triangles act as lighting points that are spread throughout the space in a careful manner. Irregular polygons constitute the doors of wardrobes, pantry and laundry room. In the small bathroom, triangles of light and mirrors contribute to the spatial illusion and provide fantastic sensations. From a small glass triangle, filled with water, life sprouts. Plants grow in it and challenge the ordinary way of living. Then, the triangulations of the interior space extend to the balcony and, thus, the small studio apartment acquires more dimension and gets involved in the magic of the singular dwelling, of the crumpled sheet of paper that involves the white stone.
Now, the small studio flat, which was dreamt to live in an irreverent way, can be enjoyed and felt in all its plenitude, and from its interior it is possible to appreciate the impressive view over the tortuous and wrinkled Douro river, which from its spring flows through a deep and narrow valley marking the landscape in an impressive way.
Golden Arch Design Award Winner '23 in Interior Design Category Photo Credits: Fernando Guerra
Copyrights: António Fernandez Architects Source: https://www.archdesignaward.com/winners-2023/arch-23-1311