2024 · Lisbon, Portugal · Adaptive Reuse
Baía House
Reimagining a mid-century villa
Photography: Clara Monteiro
Respecttheoriginalarchitect'sintelligence.Correctwhatdecadesofalterationhadobscured.Addonlywhatthebuildingwasalwaysmissing.
Specifications
The Original House
Designed in 1962, the villa expressed a confident mid-century modernism: flat roofs, horizontal cedar brise-soleil, and an open plan that was progressive for its time. Later owners had closed the kitchen, painted the cedar, and tiled over the original terrazzo floors. By 2022, the character of the original design was barely legible.
The Restoration Logic
Before any new design work began, we commissioned a historical survey to identify every original element that had survived. The survey found the floor terrazzo intact under vinyl, the cedar brise-soleil structurally sound beneath layers of paint, and the original floor plan preserved in a 1964 construction drawing held by the Lisbon municipal archive.
The cedar brise-soleil was stripped of paint by hand, preserving the original tongue-and-groove joints. The wood was treated with a single coat of natural tung oil — nothing that would seal the grain or alter the silver-grey patina it had developed over 60 years.
What We Added
The kitchen was relocated to the rear of the plan, opened to the garden through a new frameless glazed wall. This was the one addition the original plan had always needed — a direct connection between cooking, eating, and the garden that the 1962 brief had not included. Every other addition was a subtraction: removing later walls, removing false ceilings, removing paint.
Specification // Architectural Drawings & Plans
Drawing Index & Spatial Sections
DWG // 01 // Ground Floor Plan
SCALE 1:100 @ A1
Primary spatial layout showing living courtyard integration and natural ventilation axis.
The ground plan prioritizes continuous indoor-outdoor flow, wrapping communal living spaces around an internal rainwater garden.
Material Palette
Original Terrazzo
The existing terrazzo — found beneath 40 years of vinyl flooring — was restored by a specialist craftsman using the original aggregate mix. The restored floor is indistinguishable from the original; only the areas where the vinyl had caused moisture damage were re-cast.
Terracotta
New terracotta was introduced in the kitchen and bathrooms as a counterpoint to the terrazzo — warmer, more tactile, and clearly contemporary. The tone was matched to the garden's clay soil, rooting the interior in the hillside landscape.
Linen
All soft furnishings use undyed natural linen. The material ages and softens with use, developing a patina that echoes the timber, terrazzo, and clay that surround it.
Light Strategy
The original cedar brise-soleil was designed to block summer sun above 55° elevation on the west facade. The restoration preserved this geometry exactly. The result is a west-facing living room that receives warm afternoon light in autumn and winter but remains shaded and cool during the summer.
Site Response
The garden is on a steep slope below the house. Rather than terracing for a flat lawn, the garden was replanted with native hillside species — cistus, lavender, and wild olive — that require no irrigation and provide a natural visual screen from the street below.
Spatial Archive
Restored mid-century facade
MATERIALITY
The terrazzo was poured in 1962. The aggregate — small fragments of local marble and pink quartz — remains the same. The restored sections are invisible to any eye that does not already know where they are.
Living room, original terrazzo restored
PROJECT TEAM & CREDITS
